"Dangerous" Cub Police Shot Three Times Was 10 Pounds?

by Stephanie Ernst · 2009-03-03 14:59:00 UTC
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For your latest dose of "What the hell?" see "Mountain Lion Cub Poses Imminent Danger?" at the Huffington Post. Cheri Shankar is reporting that according to her source, the cub police officers shot a couple weeks ago was not nearly as big (or dangerous) as originally claimed.

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 . . . 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. . . .

Read on.

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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