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Santa Monica To Plan For Future Incidents Of Mountain Lion Confrontations

SANTA MONICA (CBS) — Outcry after the killing of a mountain lion has prompted the Santa Monica Police Department to formulate a plan of action the next time a wild cat makes its way into the city.

An approximately 3-year-old, 95-pound male mountain lion was shot and killed on May 22 after officers from the California Department of Fish and Game and personnel from Santa Monica Animal Control, police and fire spent hours trying to safely sedate and remove the cat from the densely populated area where it was found, near the Third Street Promenade.

Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis says the police department will meet with officials from the California Department of Fish and Game, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, In Defense of Animals, the Pacific Institute for Restoration Ecology CSU Channel Islands and local veterinarians who specialize in large animals to prepare for any future incident involving a large wild animal, such as a mountain lion. They will meet later this month, Lewis said.

There have been no reported instances in more than 30 years of a mountain lion being spotted in Santa Monica before the morning of May 22, according to Lewis.

That morning, at about 5:45 a.m., officers responded to reports of a mountain lion roaming the downtown Santa Monica area and found the animal inside a courtyard at 1227 2nd Street.

Department of Fish and Game officers tried to use a tranquilizer dart to sedate the mountain lion, but it became aggressive, at one point charging and shattering one of the glass doors at the courtyard's entryway, Lewis said.

Firefighters sprayed water at the glass doors of the courtyard's entry way in an effort to render them opaque, so the lion couldn't run through or jump over the eight-foot-tall doors. The mountain lion was not hit with water from the fire hoses, Lewis said.

Lewis said pepper balls the size of paintballs were fired into the ground to keep the mountain lion from approaching the front of the courtyard in his search for an escape.

Firefighters and officers used these methods to try and keep the mountain lion contained until the tranquilizer could take effect, but the cat kept trying to escape, prompting the decision to use deadly force, Lewis said.

The mountain lion died at the scene. The animal's remains were taken to the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System in San Bernardino, where a necropsy was conducted. Lewis said the preliminary findings indicate the cause of death was the result of being shot.

 

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