After a 5-year-old boy was mauled by a large mountain lion in a popular Southern California picnic area over the weekend, prompting wildlife officials to euthanize the big cat, authorities said in these circumstances, they have no choice but to put the animal down.
In the most recent attack, which occurred on Sept. 1 around 4:30 p.m. at Tapia Park inside Malibu Creek State Park, the cougar snatched the young boy by the head and began running away.
Some 40 people in the picnic area of the park witnessed the attack as the children were playing.
The victim’s aunt, who did not want to be identified, spoke to KTLA about the incident by phone.
“Somebody screamed the baby’s name, and his dad started running,” she explained. “The father grabbed the mountain lion with his hands, and he just fought. Then the mountain lion let go.”
Captain Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told KTLA that attacks by big cats are rare, but they do happen. Including Sunday’s terrifying ordeal, there have been two this year.
The first one, in Northern California, ended up being fatal.
“In a rural part of El Dorado County, two young, strong guys, 18 and 21 years old, very comfortable and competent in the woods, were attacked by one mountain lion that fought them both,” Foy explained. “Unfortunately, the oldest brother was killed by the lion.”
In Sunday’s attack at Malibu Creek State Park, the 5-year-old was airlifted to Northridge Medical Center for treatment of his injuries. He was released late that night, but the family returned on Monday due to complications with injuries to the boy’s eyes.
The extent of his injuries and current condition was not immediately available.
In 2021, barely three miles away in Monte Nido in the Santa Monica Mountains, another 5-year-old boy was mauled by a mountain lion in the family’s front yard. He was rescued by his mother who also attacked the big cat, though the child suffered injuries to his head, neck and torso, the L.A. Times reported.
In all three instances, the mountain lions were killed by wildlife officials, who cited public safety concerns. While some may disagree with putting the animals down, officials with CDFW say there are no other options.
“If you have a lion that has attacked and arguably tried to kill a small child, where do you bring that lion?” Foy said. “Well, people say, ‘Bring it to the middle of nowhere,’ but they frequently don’t point to a county in the state of California and say, ‘Well, I think that county is in the middle of nowhere.’ We’ll have people say, ‘Bring it to the other side of the Sierra. That way it can’t possibly come back.’ The people who live in Inyo County and Mono County and Alpine and Lassen County are going to say, ‘Well, no. That’s not fair to do that.’”
Foy added that there’s really no such thing as the middle of nowhere in the state of California.
“There’s 39 million of us,” he explained.
For advocates of capturing the wild animal and moving it into captivity, somewhere like a zoo, Foy said that pretty much every zoo in California and across the country that has a mountain lion exhibit “has all the mountain lions they want.”
While the boy in Sunday’s attack is expected to recover, wildlife officers contacted the family at the hospital and collected evidence of the attack, samples from the bite and scratch wounds.
Forensic testing conducted by CDFW at a lab in Sacramento found matching DNA from the mountain lion and evidence collected from the boy’s wounds.