The other day while biking from an enclosed area of trees into an open grassy field, we saw a young man running shirtless through the field with a compound bow held high in the air. He had a grin on his face as though he just returned from a meal with ol’ Roy. As the man was collecting his missed arrows, the cows in the field were stampeeding and making a big fuss of noise. Our sudden presence initiated an observer effect causing the assailant to retreat to his white truck containing three other males. The cows continued to scream their moo’s. As we rode by, the four guys left the scene. A half mile away, the sound of the wailing cows reverberated in the canyon.

What transpired during those brief moments? Was this redneck tribal warfare involving tit-for-tat killings of rivals’ cattle? We may have had an encounter with the up and coming Montana mafia. Or, was this four impoverished brothers out to hunt some meat to feed their starving families back at their shared trailer? At least they were carpooling. And, if you were to hunt large game in Montana, then you might as well begin with cows. I would say their numbers have gotten too high. With each cow pooping on average 100 pounds of manure a day, it really makes a mess of the land and streams… Or, was this a dangerous combination of drunken human breath and a secretion from the stupid gland? For some reason, stupidity seems to reach a maximum when it involves four shirtless males, a truck, and a dirt road. I’m not exactly sure what happened on this day, but I had the feeling it was a case of people hurting other people through the suffering of animals. I don’t really understand it.