In the early 70's, a friend of mine was driving a VW back to Ohio from California. In one of those open stretches, a cow wandered out in front of her and she hit it, destroying her car, putting her in the hospital, and incidentally, killing the cow. When she finally got home, she found that the state (I don't remember which one) had sent her a bill for the cow. She told me the story about 30 years ago so the details elude me now.