Mountain Lion Killed in Downtown Santa Monica, CA

by Game & Fish Staff • May 23, 2012 • 14 comments

There could have been mountain lion mayhem downtown Santa Monica had a three-year-old female feline — discovered by an office park janitor — decided to venture out into the bustling open-air shopping area known as the Third Street Promenade.

According to the LA Times, the big cat was spotted early Tuesday morning and authorities were immediately called. California Fish & Wildlife officials found an aggressive cat hell bent on escaping its predicament.  A plan was quickly put into place to tranquilize the mountain lion and relocate it back to the Santa Monica Mountains, where 22 radio-collared mountain lions call home.

After the cat was hit with a tranquilizing dart fired by a CDFW officer, the feline attempted to escape the courtyard it was cornered in. Rubber bullets and a fire hose were used in an effort to keep the cougar at bay, but when the cat rushed a nearby officer in an attempt to flee into the busy urban area, he was forced to use his sidearm to kill the cat.

The citizens of Santa Monica — a socially progressive community –  have mixed emotions about the cat killing. What are your thoughts? Did authorities handle the situation the correct way?

In Featured, Hunting
  • larry

    In 1988 the people of CA voted to ban mountain lion hunting. events like this are another reminder of the fact that we need to reinstate hunting. that way the population will be managed properly.
    luckly no one, espically a child was not hurt.

  • N. Paul

    I have to agree with larry. How many times to we have to repeat the same performance? No hunting – lion population grows – lions start eating/hurting people – hunting allowed again. Why does it always take a scene like this to get people to see what hunters have seen the whole time. Of course I might be jumping to the conclusion that this will change anything. We can always hope.

  • parkO

    100% agreed with the last statement.
    If Obama wins the next term, he will go after our 2nd amendment/ Gun Rights and these issues will be a daily occurrence. These animals are over populated in their environments and if we don't start balancing the population, they will not only endanger us humans but they will whip out the rest of the deer and whatever else they can get their paws on to eat fresh meat daily.
    These animals kill a large animal a week and usually don't eat the whole carcass as they are known to only eat fresh meat and will not eat anything dead.

    • dennis

      Yahoo he has made no attempts to nor will he!

  • J. D.

    Hunting is a great tool that is used in many other states for controling wildlife populations . Removing the mountain lion from the protected status in California would solve alot of problems. Controling lion populations here through hunting would also help stop the distruction of our deer and desert sheep herds, not to mention the wild turkeys and domestic livestock that mountain lions kill every year. There are already a number of humans that have been killed by these wild cats. The reinstatement of hunting mountain lions in California would mean that mountain lions would have a reason to fear humans instead of viewing us as dinner. It would also mean the end for a need to purchase worthless desert lands for mountain lion habitat and could save the state taxpayers the 30 million dollars a year that is currently being spent for that purpose. It would be very interesting to know who is getting all that money for otherwise worthless desert.

  • MDS

    Tragic loss of a beautiful member of the wildlife community,, and another example of human thinking that they have a god given right to be the dominate species. I live in Florida where we have a very limited number of Florida Panthers ( estimated to be about 30 still in the wild) ( sub-species of Mountain lion / cougars ) that we dearly protect.. But more common is the occurance of "Idiots" that move to Florida and complain when they encounter an alligator in their pool, their dogs which they left outside , are missing, or a one to two year old black in the backyard…People, the animals were here first, and we humans are living in their home range, not the other way around, Learn to accept that the wildlife is free to roar whereever it so desires

    • jim

      Your comments make me think that you don't have a job or a family.

    • MDS sucks ASS

      MDS, please kill yourself. You're taking up valuable space that a cockroach could be using.

    • Tim

      i don't know if you know this or not but humans are part of the ecosystem too, were not from another planet and decided to land here and kill everything. we have been managing populations of animals in the world for a very long time and we suck at it. but it still needs to be done just like ever other apex preditor manages the populations of its food. deer populations in ca have been on a decline since the lion hunting has stopped because now there are to many lions. Just like the sea lion poulation is over grown because we killed off the preditors that kill them. its a balance that has to be maintained on all sides.

  • Red Rectum

    'Rubber bullets and a fire hose'…

    I can't understand why the animal didn't get lulled into a deep sleep after that…

    • KPF78

      wow jim, i have a job and family your just a dumb ass, hunting lions in California needs to be controlled by hunters. Do you have a brain at all, well i guess you don't. You must belong to P.E.T.A. Your an idiot and must live in L.A.

  • David

    i think the best thing to do is just to remove all those mountain lions(22 collard-radio lions in santa monica hills) to some other mountains like san bernardino or up north, where they can feed themselves with some other animals and not been close to people and dog food, people in santa monica are usually hikers and theirs kids as well, the mountain lions usually attack from behind, that has happened in san diego couple times. they should open hunting season for those predators, imagine every single female lion give birth to 6-8cats and they reproduce every other year!! i will recommend you to see the movie ghost and the darkness and feel that tension.

  • http://www.facebook.com/stykbow.hunter Bear’s Handyman Serv

    kinda sounds like BULLSH#t ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

  • http://www.facebook.com/stykbow.hunter Bear’s Handyman Serv

    rubber bullets an a firehose????? PLEASE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,