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Why Airlifting Cows By Helicopter Not Practical For Wyoming Ranchers

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Why Airlifting Cows By Helicopter Not Practical For Wyoming Ranchers


When Wyoming ranchers need to get medical treatment for hurt cattle, a vet may come to the ranch and treat the animal on-site, or if that’s not possible, a cow could be loaded onto a trailer to get to the nearest clinic.

In Switzerland, injured cattle fly the friendly skies.

Because of the rugged landscape and general inaccessibility to where the cattle are, getting cows to vets takes a little extra effort. A video posted last week to the Nature is Amazing X feed (formerly Twitter) shows how that happens with a cow being evacuated from mountainous terrain dangling from a harness attached to a helicopter.

The scene looks like a “Jurassic Park” training video on how to feed a T. rex. While it’s certainly an attention-grabbing thing to see and might be practical in the neutral European nation, the sky is not the limit for Wyoming ranchers with sick or injured cattle.

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Udderly Unnecessary

Jim Magagna, executive vice president for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said aerial vehicles like helicopters and drones are potent tools for Wyoming ranchers to perform a host of tasks. But, airlifting livestock, as shown in the video, isn’t one of them.

“I don’t see how it would be practical,” he said of air ambulances for Cowboy State Cows. “Where would it ever happen? It’s technically doable, but I don’t foresee any real circumstances where it’s likely to be used in Wyoming.”

Topography might have something to do with it. The state of Wyoming is more than six times larger than Switzerland, but several mountain ranges densely cover the European nation.

In such mountainous terrain, the most effective way to move a cow, horse or other livestock might be by hitching it in a harness and sending it skyward. Magagna could only see one scenario where a Wyoming rancher might moo-ve an animal via a helicopter harness.

“If it’s a highly valuable animal, it’s feasible,” he said. “Perhaps a prize bull or something that was lost or needed to be transported quickly for veterinary care. It wouldn’t happen for routine livestock.”

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There are a few Kobe beef ranches in Wyoming, and Kobe cows can be worth as much as $30,000 each.

Another potential scenario is if a bull or cow gets itself trapped or stuck in an inaccessible spot while grazing.

Cowboy Country

Maybe flying cattle with a ticket in bare-basic economy is worth the expense in Switzerland. In Wyoming, better solutions are built into the state’s cultural identity.

Magagna likes a conventional approach. If any livestock wander into a rugged area where aerial evacuation could be an option, there’s no reason why a Wyoming cowboy couldn’t get there, too. That’s because the theory that if a cow can get there, it can get out is usually true.

“If the livestock are still mobile, getting up there by horseback and bringing them down is the most normal method,” he said.

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The simplest answers might not always be the best or most exciting, but they are often the most economical. Perhaps the Swiss enjoy using as many extravagant tools as possible, which might explain the Swiss Army knife.

But what if an animal was hurt and couldn’t be led out? Apparently, the cow being carried in the helicopter harness in the viral video was injured, a somewhat common occurrence in Switzerland, explaining the evacuation.

Magagna conceded that an injured animal in an inaccessible place might force a rancher to make a tough decision, but they’ve been making those decisions as long as humans have been ranching.

“If an individual animal was injured and wasn’t able to travel on its own,” he said, “I think it would come down to a decision of weighing the value of that animal versus the cost that would be involved in an aerial transport.”

Humanely euthanizing an injured animal might not be the neutral solution preferred by Switzerland, but Wyomingites are pragmatic by nature. That approach is why Magagna believes Wyoming’s ranchers will avoid high-flying ideas for tried-and-true, grounded solutions.

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“Even if the livestock owner had their own helicopter that was used to do it, I don’t see it in most cases being feasible,” he said. “I’m not saying it couldn’t be, but I don’t see how it would be practical.”

  • Screenshot of airlifted cow ((YouTube))
  • Screenshot of airlifted cow
    Screenshot of airlifted cow ((YouTube))
  • This still image from a video posted to X by Nature is Amazing shows a cow dangling from a helicopter in Switzerland.
    This still image from a video posted to X by Nature is Amazing shows a cow dangling from a helicopter in Switzerland. (@AMAZINGNATURE via X)

Flying Deer

Helicopter transport might be too “pie in the sky” for Wyoming ranchers, but flying hoof stock can still be spotted in Cowboy State skies. Because while aerial transport isn’t practical for ranching, it is for wildlife management.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department occasionally uses helicopters to relocate wildlife. For instance, capturing and moving mule deer allows researchers to check it for disease, take biological samples and outfit it with radio collars for movement and migration studies.

In those scenarios, helicopters are operated by flight and capture crews from private contractors rather than Wyoming Game and Fish personnel. Many contractors come from New Zealand, where, like in Switzerland, moving and managing livestock with helicopters is more common.

“Most of those guys are Kiwis,” Shawn Blajszczak, the Wyoming regional director of the Mule Deer Foundation, told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s extremely dangerous work.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at: ARossi@CowboyStateDaily.com

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Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate

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Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate


It’s Week 11 in the 2026 Wyoming prep girls’ basketball season. That means it’s the end of the regular season. 3A and 4A schools have their final game or games to determine seeding before the regional tournament, or if a team is locked into a position, one last chance to fine-tune before the postseason. Games are spread across four days.

WYOPREPS WEEK 11 GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2026

Every game on the slate is a conference matchup. Several rivalry contests are part of this week’s schedule, such as East against Central, Cody at Powell, Lyman hosting Mountain View, and Rock Springs at Green River, just to name a few. Here is the Week 11 schedule of varsity games WyoPreps has. All schedules are subject to change. If you see a game missing, please email david@wyopreps.com.

CLASS 4A

Final Score: Laramie 68 Cheyenne South 27 (conference game)

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CLASS 3A

Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)

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CLASS 4A

Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)

Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic

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Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 64 Campbell County 32 (conference game)

CLASS 3A

Final Score: #1 Cody 77 Worland 33 (conference game) – 5 different Fillies with a 3, and Hays led the way with 34 points.

Final Score: #2 Lander 49 Lyman 34 (conference game)

Final Score: #4 Wheatland 51 Douglas 40 (conference game)

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Final Score: #5 Powell 48 Lovell 42 (conference game)

Final Score: Burns 56 Torrington 43 (conference game)

Final Score: Glenrock 78 Newcastle 30 (conference game)

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WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 8 Scores 2026

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WyoPreps Girls Basketball Week 1 Scores 2025-26

 

CLASS 4A

Rock Springs at #2 Green River, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

#4 Thunder Basin at #5 Sheridan, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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#1 Cheyenne East at #3 Cheyenne Central, 6 p.m. (conference game)

Jackson at Star Valley, 6 p.m. (conference game)

CLASS 3A

#3 Pinedale at Mountain View, 4 p.m. (conference game)

#1 Cody at #5 Powell, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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CLASS 3A

Newcastle at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m. (conference game)

Glenrock at Rawlins, 3 p.m. (conference game)

Torrington at #4 Wheatland, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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Submit a Score to WyoPreps

 

Wyoming Boys 4A Swimming & Diving State Championships 2026

4A Boys State Swim Meet for 2026 in Cheyenne

Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com





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Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers

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Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers


Controversy has engulfed Wyoming’s state legislature after a conservative activist was photographed handing checks to Republican lawmakers on the state house floor, in an incident that has highlighted intra-conservative divisions and the role of money in the Cowboy state’s politics.

The political storm started on 9 February, when Karlee Provenza, a Democratic lawmaker, took a photo showing Rebecca Bextel, a conservative activist and committeewoman for the Teton county Republican party, handing a check to Darin McCann, a Republican representative, on the legislative floor. Marlene Brady, another Republican representative, stands in the photo’s background, a similar piece of paper pinched between her fingers.

“You have a person from the richest county in the country coming down to Cheyenne to hand out checks on the house floor,” Provenza said. “I have never seen something so egregious.”

Questions around the checks were soon swirling, and answers weren’t forthcoming. When asked what Bextel gave to her, Brady told a reporter for local outlet WyoFile: “I can’t remember.”

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Then Bextel herself addressed the incident. “I raised $400,000 in the last election cycle for conservative candidates, and I will be doubling that amount this year,” Bextel wrote on Facebook on 11 February. “There’s nothing wrong with delivering lawful campaign checks from Teton county donors when I am in Cheyenne.”

Since then, it has emerged that the checks came from Don Grasso, a wealthy Teton county donor, who told the Jackson Hole News and Guide that he wrote the checks for Bextel to deliver to 10 Freedom caucus-aligned politicians. Grasso said the checks were intended as campaign contributions, and were not tied to specific legislation. It is unclear how many checks were ultimately delivered, but two of four confirmed recipients include the speaker of the house, Chip Neiman, and John Bear, the former head of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

The Wyoming house has formed a legislative investigative committee, and the Laramie county sheriff’s office said they’d open a criminal investigation.

Bextel declined to answer questions from the Guardian. Brady, McCann and Bear did not respond to requests for comment.

Neiman said he considered the criticism a “wraparound smear campaign”. He said: “It never once crossed my mind that this was bribery.

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“These legislators, myself included, are now guilty until we can prove that we’re innocent. How is that right in this country? Isn’t that a little bit backwards?”

The scandal has highlighted long-standing divisions in Wyoming’s Republican party, which in recent years has seen a growing divide between old school, more moderate conservatives and a harder-right Freedom Caucus.

Several former Republican lawmakers forcefully condemned their colleagues for accepting the checks, and a local Republican party branch called for the lawmakers’ resignations.

Ogden Driskill, a Wyoming Republican senator, told the Guardian he does not consider Bextel’s actions to be illegal, but that “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should”.

Bextel has spent years pushing against housing mitigation fees in Wyoming, and Driskill noted that she distributed the house floor checks just days before a bill she had publicly supported was set to be heard. Bextel was registered as a member of the press, not as a lobbyist when she delivered the checks.

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“Ethically and morally, it’s bankrupt to a massive degree,” Driskill said.

Neiman said that he and other legislators who received checks have supported similar bills in the past: “Bribery is paying somebody to do something they would not otherwise do.”

Nationally, the 2024 election cycle saw record-spending from the mega-wealthy, as well as dark money groups. Wyoming followed the trend, in a tense red-on-red primary season.

For those gearing up to campaign this year, Teton county, the richest in the US, and Bextel’s picturesque home turf, is an essential stop. Its extreme wealth gives it a foothold on the national level as well. Palantir chief executive Alex Karp and Donald Trump attended an annual Republican leadership fundraiser at Jackson Hole in 2024, and JD Vance attended the same one in 2025.

Bextel pulls dollars from Teton county into the Freedom Caucus side of Wyoming’s conservative split. She hosted no-press-allowed meet and greets earlier this year benefitting leading candidates for Wyoming’s governor and open US House seat.

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In an interview with the Open Range Record, a media network she co-founded, Bextel said controversy around the checks was solely because she was making “even playing field” in Wyoming against the state’s more moderate Republicans, who she calls “George Soros” candidates. She said that she will be sure to keep raising money – just away from the legislative floor.

“I guess I’m gonna ask all the gentlemen and gentleladies to step outside the Capitol while I hand them a check,” Bextel said. “Let me be clear: I’m doubling down.”

But it’s not just wealthy local donors putting their weight behind the factions. Last election cycle, out of state groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on anonymous and often inaccurate mailers.

“These actors, especially from the far right, they like to push the bounds of the norms,” said Rosa Reyna Pugh, an organizing and advocacy consultant at Western States Center, an Oregon-based non-profit focused on democracy in the western United States. “They like to see what policies they can kind of push, and see where they can play a piece,” Reyna Pugh said.

While Neiman and Driskill fight politically, they do agree on one thing: summer will bring an expensive and brutal campaign season.

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“You’re going to see more dark money than you’ve ever seen. We’ve done absolutely nothing to enforce it. Our secretary of state has not even made a slight attempt to deal with it,” Driskill said. “You’re going to see lots and lots of outside money and I think you’re seeing it on both sides.”

As national questions swirl around pay-to-play politics and profiteering in the Trump administration, Provenza wants better for the Cowboy State.

“We should not be aligning ourselves with how the federal government is conducting itself or how federal elections conduct themselves,” Provenza said. “We owe something far better and more honest to the people of Wyoming than that.”



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Wyoming man reaches plea deal to avoid jail time in wolf-abuse case

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Wyoming man reaches plea deal to avoid jail time in wolf-abuse case


A Sublette County man who captured and brought an injured wolf into a bar in February 2024 has struck a deal with prosecutors that could keep him out of jail, reports WyoFile.

A signed plea agreement filed with the Sublette County District Court and acquired by WyoFile on Wednesday afternoon means that Cody Roberts, 44, would likely no longer face trial. It had been set to begin March 9.

Under the deal, Roberts withdraws his earlier not guilty plea and changes that plea to guilty or no contest for felony cruelty to animals.

The deal calls for a prison sentence of 18 months to two years that would be suspended in favor of 18 months of supervised probation and a $1,000 fine. Additionally, agreed-upon conditions of his probation include: no hunting or fishing; no alcohol, presence at bars or liquor stores; and a requirement that Roberts follow recommended addiction treatment.

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As part of the deal, the parties are asking that a “pre-sentence investigation report” be ordered by the court.

Roberts allegedly acquired a wolf by striking it with a snowmobile, leaving it “barely conscious” on Feb. 29, 2024. Photos and video from that night showed him posing for pictures with the animal and even kissing it. The wolf’s behavior suggests that it was gravely injured, according to biologists who’ve reviewed video of the muzzled animal while it was prone and barely moving on the floor of the Green River Bar.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department initially handled the incident, issuing Roberts a $250 fine for possession of warm-blooded wildlife. The state agency declined to seek stiffer penalties or jail time, and Game and Fish officials maintained that predatory animals, including wolves, were exempted from felony animal cruelty laws.

Sublette County law enforcement officials disagreed. In August, prosecutor Clayton Melinkovich convened a grand jury that indicted Roberts for felony animal cruelty. That crime could have put Roberts in jail for up to two years, though his plea agreement averts mandatory time behind bars as long as he successfully completes probation.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

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