StringerBell said:
Someone pls I'm begging you is this legit how it's done
SPOILER ALERT
like you legit dig a hole and then drive the cattle in there and shoot them one by one ending with the littlest one
I quasi expected the last shot to be some sort of slow motion action movie shot where we see the calf bounce back and forth from the shots
I personally don't know, but I was curious as well, and I asked ChatGPT.
*****
Yesthe basic premise was realistic, but the show's portrayal was somewhat simplified and dramatized for television.
In Dutton Ranch, Beth and Rip destroy their entire herd after a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak is confirmed. That decision is rooted in real-world livestock disease control. FMD is one of the most feared diseases in cattle because it spreads extremely quickly and can devastate entire livestock industries. In countries that are free of FMD, a confirmed outbreak can lead to the destruction of infected and exposed animals to stop the virus from spreading.
Where the show takes some dramatic liberties is who makes the decision and how it's carried out. In a real U.S. outbreak, state and federal animal-health authorities would become heavily involved. Quarantines, testing, movement controls, and official disease-response teams would play major roles. The destruction of animals would generally be conducted under government oversight rather than solely by ranch owners acting on their own.
The show depicts Rip personally shooting the entire herd and burying them in a large trench. While mass culling of livestock during severe disease outbreaks has happened in real life, the actual procedures are usually much more regulated and coordinated than what viewers saw onscreen.
So if you're asking, "Would a ranch really lose an entire herd because of foot-and-mouth disease?"absolutely, yes. If you're asking, "Would it happen exactly the way Rip handled it?"probably not in the United States, where government authorities would almost certainly take control of the response.
One detail the show got right is the emotional impact. Ranchers often spend years building bloodlines and breeding programs. Losing a herd can be financially and personally devastating, which is something many viewers with ranching backgrounds recognized immediately.
