Sadly another one of our state protected mountain lions has been shot, and killed. A resident of Jeffrey Street in the city of SLO saw a mountain lion in one of their backyard trees. They called 911 and the SLO Police Department responded and confirmed there was a mountain lion in their tree about 15 feet from the ground. SLO PD officers established a perimeter in the yard while SLO County Animal Services and California Department of Fish & Game officials responded to the scene.

All agencies assessed the situation and determined that the mountain lion posed a serious threat to the public and neighborhood residents because of its location in a heavily populated residential area, especially if the mountain lion were to flee from the yard into the neighboring yards and residential areas. Officials developed a plan to tranquilize the mountain lion in an attempt to remove it from the area.

At about 6:25PM personnel from the SLO county Animal Services shot the mountain lion with a tranquilizer dart while the animal was still in the tree. Approximately 4 minutes later the lion fell from the tree and landed on the ground. The lion then got up and tried to leave the yard by jumping the rear fence. As the mountain lion began to jump over the rear fence, police officers shot the mountain lion, however it was still able to jump the fence into the rear yard of a neighboring home. Once in the neighboring yard, a police officer shot and killed the lion.

The mountain lion appeared to be an adult. Hopefully not a lactating mother, leaving orphaned cubs behind?

Our Reaction

We appreciate that the responding officers recognized a mountain lion hiding in a tree is not a reason to immediately kill it, and that they tried to do the right thing by resolving the situation non-lethally.  As natural habitats continue to disappear at a high rate, interactions with wildlife will inevitably become more common.  Urban law enforcement could benefit from proper training to better handle mountain lion as well as bear encounters.  All involved had the right intention, they just needed the appropriate training and tools.  We at Animal Rescue Team, Inc. will have a field volunteer from The Mountain Lion Foundation, who offers briefings to law enforcement agencies, and covers “shoot/don’t shoot” scenarios host a training at our facility .

Tips

Even if an official is unable to tranquilize and relocate a lion, we highly recommend giving the animal time and space to move on.  Mountain lions are solitary animals and each one roams its own territory often a hundred square miles or more in size.  They rarely stay in one place for long.  Aversive conditioning can be very effective in scaring a lion away from populated areas.  Just last month, police officers in Gilroy used pepper balls (similar to a paintball gun that shoots pepper spray-like balls) to scare away a wandering mountain lion (read more).  Rubber bullets are one of the more common – and successful – methods used by officers.  Other states like Washington have even started using specially trained Karelian bear dogs to “teach” relocated mountain lions and bears to stay away from towns.  (learn more about this great program or See an example)  Alternatives to killing must be considered.

Working with our Law Enforcement & Wildlife Officials

The Mountain Lion Foundation, in conjunction with Animal Rescue Team, Inc. will be hosting  a one hour briefing at the ART Inc.’s wildlife rehab facility for local law enforcement ONLY as well as media on Friday July 23, 2010 at 15:00.

Our guest speaker will be Robin Parks:

Robin Parks retired from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) in 2004 after a 25 year career in federal law enforcement.  Robin’s career required he work and live in various locations in the US, Europe, Mexico, and on US Navy ships at sea.  A life long admirer of the great cats, he began doing volunteer work at animal sanctuaries in California and other states in 2000 where he first encountered captive mountain lions. This later led him to MLF where he has been a field volunteer in several projects.  He now is very much involved in reaching out to law enforcement agencies who are the first responders to cougar-human encounters.  Robin received a large amount of media coverage for his educational briefing to the Santa Paula Police Department after officers shot and killed a lion kitten in town.  Robin’s presentations provide basic cougar biology and safety tips, but primarily discuss “shoot/don’t shoot” considerations and scenarios which demonstrate that killing a cougar simply because it has wandered into human territory is rarely necessary and is often the wrong decision.  Robin lives in San Diego.

It is clear that the public likes mountain lions and does not want them killed.  There are many effective non-lethal tools out there for handling mountain lion calls.  The Mountain Lion Foundation is happy to help any way they can.  For more information, visit MountainLion.org.

For reservations and directions please call 805 896-1859,

Thank you,

Julia Di Sieno, Executive Director
Animal Rescue Team, Inc.
www.animalrescueteam.net
805 896-1859

Amy Rodrigues, Outreach Coordinator
amy@mountainlion.org
Mountain Lion Foundation
www.mountainlion.org
800 319-7621