In the valley below us, a hundred cattle were grouped together. If you could still call them cattle. Bones poked out from under their dusty skin. Patches of hair were missing from their hides, and scabs covered much of their bodies. Even from a distance, you could smell disease. They moved as one, shoving and leaning, some of them too weak to stand on their own. And they were screaming. Four men on horseback circled the herd. A pop pierced the air. Then another. Then another. Pieces of the horde began dropping off one by one like flesh from a leper. Pop. Thud. Pop. Thud. Too sick to run, they
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During the Great Depression, livestock prices dropped dramatically. In the Dust Bowl states, farmers couldn't sell their animals, nor could they afford to keep them. Roosevelt intervened with a "buy back" program in which the government would pay farmers for their excess hogs or cattle. The animals were then ultimately destroyed. Although harsh, this program did succeed in keeping many farmers from declaring bankruptcy.
