Last week in the sleepy town of Santa Paula, California a mountain lion wandered into someone's backyard and after a brief standoff was killed by the police. Mountain lions are protected in this state mostly due to Proposition 117 which passed in 1990 and banned mountain lion trophy hunting. However, the Department of Fish and Game does issue what are known as depredation permits which allows the killing of these animals under certain conditions, usually when they pose a danger to livestock or people. Since there had been no attacks reported, no one had been hurt, no pets had been eaten, I was curious as to why the Santa Paula policeman deemed it necessary to shoot the cub.
To find out, I called the Santa Paula Chief of Police, Steve MacKinnon and asked him what had happened to make the officers fear for their safety. He told me that even though this was a young lion, he still had big claws and could be dangerous. I suggested that if they were so scared, why didn't they just, you know, get in their cars or something? McKinnon said that he wouldn't discuss the tactics of his officers but that they made a decision that the cub presented an imminent danger to them and the community. At the time we spoke, it was reported that the cub weighed in at a "hefty" 35 pounds (about poodle size) and that it had "advanced" on a resident.
The problem is that this vicious mountain lion was actually just a cub, a 6 to 12-week-old baby weighing no more than 10 pounds. I found this out from a source close to the Santa Paula PD. The cub hadn't hurt anyone, but the police claimed that he was a threat and instead of waiting for the Department of Fish and Game to come do their job (which is relocating the animal out of the yard) the police went ahead and shot him. Three times.
Exactly how much damage could a cub that size do to a full grown man? And besides, if given the chance, that baby lion would have soon made his way out of that yard and back to his mama. Also, why did the police at the scene initially fudge the size of this defenseless kitten in their report? A big guy with a big gun versus a 10 pound cub; I guess that wouldn't go over too well with most people.
We almost killed off all of the California mountain lions, also known as cougars, by the 1970's. There may be four or five thousand cougars left in the state but no one knows for sure because they are solitary animals who make it a point of staying away from humans. They are easily frightened away by people and that may explain why there have only been 4 lethal attacks on humans in over 100 years (since they started keeping records). At least 15 people are killed every year by someone's pet dog. Since 1990 and the passing of Prop 117, over 2000 mountain lions have been killed. We are so intolerant, so easily stirred up when we see one of these beautiful creatures in our streets or backyards that we shoot first and ask questions later.
To quote one of the newspapers about this story, "Mountain lion sightings in communities backed up against a forest are always possible." Really? You build homes near a forest and there might be wildlife. Imagine that.
As we continue to encroach into the forests, up the hills, into the mountains, we continue to displace hundreds of thousands of creatures that have lived for a millennium in harmony with their surroundings. Never taking more than they need, never destroying, defiling or annihilating other species. And they only have instinct to go on. We on the other hand have free will and the ability to reason. We can make conscience choices and decide to let the cougar kittens and the other woodland creatures live in peace. Or we can just kill them all so we don't have to worry what will wander into our yards the next time around.
This message is for you. I could not find a way to contact, I live in Chicago, no mountains, no Mountain Lions, accept the one that visited us last Spring he too was gunned down by cowardly police. There has to be a way to stop the abusive treatment of the lion, it has to be more than just writing messages
on a newspaper's web site. Most of us agree what was done is wrong. Just a baby how cruel can that
be! We have to fight back, not only for the cougar but, also for the wolf. They are both beautiful animals
and have a right to live! I love what Rachel Carson said: "Until we can learn to appreciate the valued life with which we share the earth, we hall not be truly human...."
I called and tried to speak with the Santa Paula police no one was available but , I have a letter ready
to go to Chief Steve MacKinnon. If there is something else I can do please let me know. (Let us know.)
(916) 445-0411
Who's the victim here? Certainly not people as there have been only 6 fatalities in the state of California since 1870, whereas over (since the police shot the 15 lb cub) 29,387 Mountain Lions have been killed in western states since 1997, including 996 killings in California during that time. I find it interesting that many people love to purchase property next to and in nature, but at the same time are actually frightened to death of nature. These "nature lovers" start dialing 911 when an animal comes onto their property and ask the police to kill the offender, when in fact, the offender is them. We complain about our children not learning responsibility, while we as adults do not take the time to ask the experts who are more than willing to teach us how to protect ourselves, our children and our animals from not only Mountain Lions, but snakes, badgers, squirrels and even poison ivy.
It's about time we do the right thing and take responsibility for our actions. If you are fortunate enough to be able to live next to a shrinking wildlife population, then please do what you can do to not only protect yourselves, but to protect the wildlife and help it thrive.
Will misunderstanding, fear, and legend, ill prepared communities and a pre-occupied public lead our remaining big cats down the path of the Jaguar within our lifetime. We need a recovery plan... each locality, and each of us must take a stand against the remaining Bush-era U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to designate habitats. Write to Obama and ask to him to protect critical habitats and donate to the Jaguar Recover Fund. And, yes, work with your local npo's to understand how to live with and help protect what wild remains around us.
Great! In a way you got it right and so did Pearlswan. The ego is an extension of our life preservation instinctive process that sometime goes overboard. For fear of death and suffering Bush invaded Iraq. We fogged and kill all insects for fear of the spread of disease by some of them. So you have to balance your heart with true compassion.
posted Feb 18, 2009 at 19:00:22
In 1990 Proposition 117 was passed which made mountain lions a protected species that cannot be hunted so there isn’t any way to relieve this population pressure. Many displaced lions now end up getting killed when they attack pets or livestock, threaten people or get struck by cars.
I suppose we could scrape away a few hundred square miles of urban areas to make room for more lions but you never hear the cat lovers volunteering to move out. It is always YOUR home that is built on wildlife habitat not theirs. So until you have unoccupied acreage, the name of a willing zoo with available space for a mountain lion, or have captured a wild animal yourself – quit criticizing Santa Paula PD.
Mountain lion require large territories of 40-200 sq mi with deer or other large mammals to feed upon and cubs are dependent upon their mothers until they are about 18 months of age (males will eat their own given the opportunity). Just where would this 15 lb cub have gone if captured alive? Where is this suitable but unoccupied habitat around your hillside home? You are probably correct, we don’t have to kill them; they can kill each other or starve to death. Too bad this young wild animal was shot before it could have been confined like your pets.
Other animals can adapt to us, or not. It doesn't matter. Does it?
My feeling is that they are not in our backyards; we are in their living rooms. God bless and protect them from humans, whose solution always seems to be a violent one.
In November a mountain lion was trapped and caught in a cage in this neighborhood because it was eating the chickens. The animal was relocated successfully to Walker Pass. So some of these stories have happy endings.