An aerial pen raised and lowered by a driven land vehicle has sidewalls defining an open bottom, a retractable platform for a targeted animal to stand on, a livestock head gate, and a retractable crowding gate cooperatively arranged with the deployed platform and head gate for securing the targeted animal for aerial carrying. Use of the aerial pen is like practicing, on a large-scale, a box-trap style `pursuit-and-pounce` of cattle catching, albeit at an unhurried pace of pursuit, followed by an unhurried pounce. The box-trap style capture might be likened to the activity of `pouncing` or, more fancifully, likened to the activity of netting as practiced by insect collectors with aerial nets (eg., butterfly nets). Presumptively, the livestock animal is sick or otherwise slowed, which permits this activity to be practiced without harm to the animal.