After a mountain lion attacked a 5-year-old boy over the weekend, some commenters on social media blasted officials’ decision to kill the big cat and accused the boy’s family of provoking the animal.
It was hard for some to understand why there wasn’t another way to deal with the issue, given all the efforts to help the dwindling mountain lion population in Southern California and the love L.A. had for its favorite cat, P-22.
“That’s what happens when we are in their territory!” wrote one woman on Facebook.
“Couldn’t relocate the lion had to kill it!! But that’s we what we do we destroy everything like a plague to make more room for more in the way people,” wrote another.
But experts said that the killing of the puma was likely the only responsible answer after the cat pounced on the young boy, who was in a designated picnic area with dozens of other people.
“It attacked a small child, and we were concerned if we didn’t remove the animal it may attack and possibly kill another child,” said Patrick Foy, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Foy pointed to a deadly attack in 2004 when a mountain lion killed a mountain biker in Orange County, then attacked and nearly killed a woman hours later.
People ride their bikes during a visit tol Malibu Creek State Park in Calabasas on August 20, 2018.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Foy also stressed that the attack was not the fault of the family or the child.
“There are people who say we moved into their habitat. Yes, that’s true, but a mountain lion that attacks a human … We don’t have mountain lion jail,” said Beth Pratt, the California regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation. “As much as it pains me, I think the officials made the right decision here.”
Pratt — who says she is sometimes called “Cougar Lady,” and who jokingly referred to herself as famed puma P-22’s agent — is by no means a kill-first advocate. She believes everything possible should be done to protect mountain lions. But California is the country’s most progressive state when it comes to putting wildlife first, Pratt said.
In instances where the animal poses an imminent danger to humans, euthanasia is the only option, she said.
Sunday’s attack was a prime example, Pratt said.
The 5-year-old was playing with other children close to his family’s picnic table when the puma attacked, according to officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The cat took the boy and might have dragged him off, but the child’s father grabbed the cat and fought him until he released the boy, a family member told KTLA.
The mountain lion remained in a tree until authorities came and “euthanized it via firearm.”
Attacks by mountain lions on humans remain exceedingly rare. Since 1986, there had been just 24 documented attacks before Sunday’s, according to Fish and Wildlife. Four of the attacks were fatal.
“I definitely come down on the animal rights side of science,” Pratt said. “But on the other hand, when an animal attacks, officials don’t have much choice.”
An instance in which Pratt disagreed with the decision to kill a puma came in 2012, when Santa Monica authorities shot a mountain lion that got stuck in the Third Street Promenade shopping mall.
“It was holed up and there were many more options,” said Pratt.
Authorities said the lion tried to escape repeatedly, and shooting it was a last resort.
In 2013, the Legislature passed a law requiring authorities to use nonlethal measures to handle mountain lions except in instances where they pose an imminent threat to humans.
“If a mountain lion goes after a person, [the California Department of Fish and Wildlife] or other responding law enforcement have the authority to lethally remove the animal to protect public safety,” said Korinna Domingo, the founder and director of the Cougar Conservancy.
There has been growing awareness of the plight of Southern California mountain lions in recent years, as they face peril from the forces of development, traffic and pesticides.
A recent survey estimated the total number of mountain lions to be between 3,200 and 4,500, which is thousands fewer than previously thought. The count was conducted by state and university scientists who used GPS collar data and genetic information from scat samples to model population densities across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Mojave Desert and Southern California’s patchwork of weedy, fire-stripped wilderness.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had for decades estimated that the state’s mountain lion population was roughly 6,000, despite relentless vehicle strikes, wildfires and encroachment by land-hungry humans throughout their range, The Times reported in January.
P-22’s stint in Hollywood made him a star complete with T-shirts and murals. He was captured and euthanized in late 2022, deemed too sick to return to the wild because of injuries and infection.
