or is this really a vendetta against a particular family by someone who wishes them harm?

Three captive elk now shot dead in a fairly remote part of East River South Dakota. The on-line story doesn't mention the place name "Crandall" but the live story did. I don't even know if you can call this place a "hamlet", its on the flats right at the foot of the descending west side of the "Coteau des Prairies" upland. I'm not sure where from the place name the captive elk herd compound is located. This place is away from any major highway so a person tends to get noticed by any of the locals, although the deer season is finishing up in that area so maybe some non-local hunters are involved.

Who knows but I hope they find the shooter(s). I think a good punishment would be to dose the guilty ones with a good amount of cow elk urine and put them in the pen with any surviving bull. It might not be elk rut anymore but I suspect the bull (or bulls) would give these losers some "attention"...

https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/clark-county-3-captive-elk-shot-in-3-weeks/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coteau_des_Prairies

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Crandall,+SD+57434/@45.1528685,-98.3408082,99375m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x52d29cdd1502155f:0xe8e8f58703e53b83!8m2!3d45.1552372!4d-97.9556475!16s%2Fg%2F11cjnp83df!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEyNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Can we amend the version of the bull elk punishment to include the Ned Beatty Deliverance position?

I say we dip them in brown gravy and put them in a pen with a wolverine that is high on Angel Dust. That is just me though.

These are the type of people who give hunters a bad name. I hope they catch the idiots and throw the book at them.

If anyone ever is in northeast South Dakota and has time to kill and want to see some neat "prairie" (remember the big continent grasslands didn't have any real "mountains" except for a few locations further west), the back roads along the western edge of the "Coteau" (mostly gravel) between U.S. 212 west out of Watertown and U.S. 12 (east and west out of Aberdeen) is neat experience.

On the west side is part of the "James River Lowlands" which is now mostly cropped, with some scattered pastures and such. On the east side (the descending west side of the Coteau), its hills and draws up the escarpment, rising up 200 to 300 feet elevation change in a few miles. That's sort of a big deal on the plains. A good number of draws between the hills were and are partially wooded- overall a neat wildlife area. On top of the Coteau, are many glacial lakes and marshes, some that have greatly expanded in area size since the late1980s/early 1990s. More neat wildlife and trapping habitat.

The drive is worth the hour "out of the way" in my opinion.