Pet-eating mountain lion killed in Arcadia

It's a good night to be a pet in Arcadia. At least it's a little less dangerous without that mountain lion around. From AP:

Authorities say a mountain lion killed this week in Arcadia may have been the same animal preying on pets in foothill communities. Arcadia police shot the cougar Wednesday night in the backyard of a home in a neighborhood nestled on the edge of the Angeles National Forest. Officers say the 140-pound female mountain lion had just killed a dog and was charging at police when they shot it with an assault weapon.

--Shelby Grad

Comments

[Michael Sporty]

It is just a shame that a mountain lion is killed because too many fidos have been eaten. Why can't these animals be sedated, trapped, and relocated?

[Beate Nilsen]

Poor thing; the fires must have taken a lot of habitat and wild critters away for her to be stalking the grand houses of Arcadia.

[V.]

If the good people of Southern California weren't so intent on building deep into the mountain lion's habitat, slicing it apart with freeways and fences and, god help us, vineyards, this native species would have room enough to roam and eat deer, their preferred prey. Instead, they're marginalized and demonized and killed. Shame on us for letting this happen.

[Olden Atwoody]

"Officers say the 140-pound female mountain lion had just killed a dog and was charging at police when they shot it with an assault weapon."

Yet another senseless waste of life - all due to assault rifles.

[Tiny Tim]

OK. Seriously, read my entire post.

Let's travel back to 1990. California voters decided they knew more about wildlife management than the Department of Fish and Game when they made Cougars a protected species. Now the mountain lions are becoming overpopulated. You may not enjoy sport hunting, but it is a fact that with the help of hunters money, research, and statistics are generated for the protection of ALL wildlife species.

There are no predators of cougars other than humans. Now the department must spend our tax dollars and more of their time radio tagging big-horn sheep and cougars in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Why? Unchecked cougar populations took the herd down to just 100!! They have to monitor populations to decide how many mountain lions to kill every year. This is only one example.

Mountain lions run out of food as their population increases. Do you think they call it a day and chew on some grass? No. They move to a new area with new tasty snacks such as farm livestock, pets, and people.

Uninformed PETA type people... DO SOME RESEARCH. Sometimes animals HAVE to die to be treated ethically. Remember, there's always more than one side to every story!

And hey Mr. anti-gun "...Senseless waste of life - all due to assault rifles". Remember the L.A. riots? Korean business owners defended their businesses from armed looters with those so-called "assault rifles". Katrina affected residents defended themselves and their homes when the police weren't anywhere to be found.! REAL assault rifles are fully automatic battle rifles as used by our military. You're so called assault rifles are nothing more than semi-auto rifles with a pistol grip.

You've obviously got the internet. Do some research and make well informed opinions!