That's the only thing I can come up with to explain the freaky Viewmont/American Fork high school football game.

Two home-crowd pranksters released a terrified, pen-raised pheasant onto the field. The players shooed it to the sidelines. It fluttered among the uniforms for a few seconds and then directly under the foot of a volunteer Viewmont coach. He delivered a misplaced stomp. Someone else put it out of its misery. Small delay of game.

No one will remember the football game, Humane Society Director Gene Baierschmidt predicts. Everyone will remember the bird.

The part-time coach may not be a villain. He didn't toy with his prey. He quickly, if recklessly, found a solution for a nuisance. Whether it was an accident, or he acted out of frustration or poor impulse control, obviously, he should have known better, or been more careful.

Still, the case raises the same old questions about Utah's weak animal torture laws. There have been other, better examples this year:

In June, someone shot two baby golden eaglets in a nest north of Cedar City.

A pair of Orem teenagers shot nine cows near Strawberry Reservoir in September after failing to find a deer during the bow hunt. None died, but only because the hunters were using practice tips.

A West Valley City man shot his neighbor's Pomeranian - the dog lingered for more than a week.

Then last month, someone emptied a handgun over and over into Crookneck, an aging Ivins quarterhorse. He bled out slowly from the 30 to 50 shots.

Intent and degree are different in each case. I wouldn't put the football game in the same category as the rest of the mayhem. The coach says he was trying to trap the bird with his foot and lost his balance.

It's been a tough year for Viewmont football. Their star player died before the season started in a drowning accident. The team was losing the last game of the season.

"This coach is a sweet guy. This summer, he was one of those rocks," says Viewmont Assistant Principal Dan Linford. "He's devastated. He regrets it."

School administrators are investigating, trying to decide whether to invite the coach back for next season. The State Division of Wildlife Resources briefly considered citing him with poaching. American Fork police charged him with animal cruelty.

I don't think he should be strung up; this public shaming seems sufficient. If nothing else, his case highlights the need for explicit statutes.

When the dairy farmers, veterinarians, hunters and ranchers on Capitol Hill stop worrying about animal husbandry and define animal torture and a fair penalty - otherwise known as "Henry's Law" - cases like these will be cleared up.

walsh@sltrib.com