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Aww,isn't it cute? it must have wanted to play with the kids.
http://morganhilltimes.com/news/newsview.asp?c=99908
Mountain lion cubs invade neighborhood
Friday, March 12, 2004
By Carol Holzgrafe
Morgan Hill Police found themselves under fire from some quarters this week after officers shot and killed a 6-month-old mountain lion hiding in a back yard. People from as far away as San Francisco phoned or e-mailed the MHPD and this newspaper, calling police “animal killers†and worse.
One other lion was tranquilized and captured for later release in the hills west of he city; a third escaped onto Llagas Road at Hale Avenue and was hit by a car and killed.
Police said they were justified in shooting the cat because it had turned aggressive and was threatening the public. They were fully backed up by officials from California Fish and Game, the state’s wildlife protection and management agency.
Fish and Game warden John Norris said he had debriefed the officers involved and absolutely agreed that they had followed the required protocol. It has been against the law for the public to hunt the lions in California since Jan. 1, 1990; law enforcement officers operate under different, though real, rules.
“Determining public safety is up to the individual officer,†Norris said. “Any threat on any level is justified, though every situation is different. This cat was between two occupied houses, it was near the school and there were three lions, not just one that is more usual.â€
Norris said he is convinced officers exercised the best judgment they could given the circumstances.
MHPD Lt. Joe Sampson said most people who called were satisfied once it was explained that the lions were large enough to cause damage.
“Once they understood these were not cute, cuddly kittens but teenagers they agreed it was a reasonable action,†Sampson said.
The state rules for legally killing mountain lions are strict.
Lt. Dave Fox of the state Department of Fish and Game arrived from Monterey to offer what help he could.
“In order to kill, it must be declared a public safety threat,†Fox said. “These officers made an attempt to tranquilize the animal first.â€
Fox, who was on the scene early and handled the release that night of the one surviving mountain lion, said education is a big part of his job, allaying the public’s fears that the lions pose a huge threat.
“Mountain lions are not man eaters,†Fox said, “but they do have to kill to eat.â€
Usually, the lions dine on deer, rabbits, raccoons and the smaller animals, like house cats that are allowed out. Seldom, he said, do they become aggressive around people.
The problem, Fox said, is that the lion population is getting too big to manage. Since Proposition 117 went into effect Jan. 1, 1990 - it banned mountain lion hunting in California - there is nothing left to reduce the numbers.
“The Mountain Lion Foundation, the group that pushed for 117, thought the presence of an adult male lion in a territory would keep the numbers down because males tend to kill cubs, but not even that is enough. People tend to freak out about the danger; others want to put limits and restrictions on what we can do to manage the animals. You can’t win,†he said. “We have reached ‘caring capacity.’ â€
Another result of Prop. 117, Fox said, was the disappearance of any lion-related budget.
“We have no money to study the situation,†he said. “The law has tied our hands.â€
Norris agreed with Fox but added that spreading residential development into the foothills shrinks mountain lion territory and causes the dominant animals to push the younger, weaker ones out.
“We’ve had to “depredate†young cubs or older lions on ranches when they were looking at livestock rather than deer,†Norris said.
There is no shortage of lions in the state, he said,
It is not only mountain lion behavior that is changed by encroaching civilization, Norris said.
“Bobcats, coyotes and other predators have less area to roam in and there has been a bit of a rise in the population,†he said.
The residential subdivision where the mountain lions were discovered is approximately 20 years old.
The back yards of the two homes were the mountain lions were immediately behind Shadow Mountain Church and School.
Some of land in the area west of Hale remains in open space.
