Mountain lion was shot by local hunters after Fish and Game
issued a permit
Morgan Hill – A mountain lion that killed four goats and mauled a fifth at a home in unincorporated Morgan Hill was killed by local hunters, according to the goats’ owner, Nicky Austin.
Department of Fish and Game officials issued a permit that allows citizens to kill wildlife that are taking livestock or pets or damaging property, Austin said. The lion was killed when it once again jumped the six-foot fence onto the property shortly before 11pm Tuesday.
“The kids and I were at my neighbor’s house, she had made us dinner, and we were just relaxing after a busy day, and we heard the shots,” Austin said. “We waited for the all-clear, and a little after 11pm, we walked out there and saw it. It was sad, you know, we felt bad, because we know it was hungry and just following its instincts.”
The mountain lion first showed up on Austin’s property in a rural area of north Morgan Hill Saturday night or early Sunday morning, when it killed two of her goats that were sleeping within 100 feet of her open bedroom window. A third was killed, dragged away from the house and partially eaten. The next night, the lion returned to eat more of the third goat, Austin said.
The following night, a fourth goat was killed and another mauled. Austin said she had moved some of her goats after the first and second attacks to places she thought they would be safer, but the day after the last attack, she moved most of the ones still alive from the original dozen off the property to neighbors’ and relatives’ barns.
When the lion returned Tuesday night, earlier than it had showed up before, Austin said two very experienced hunters were waiting for it.
“My dad knows them, and these guys are very good, very knowledgeable,” she said. “We wanted this to be very humane. With these guys, we were sure it wouldn’t suffer.”
Department of Fish and Game officials visited Austin Tuesday afternoon to give her the permit, which Tony Swauger, public information officer for the department, said is standard procedure in such situations.
According to the department’s Web site, which Swauger said is a good source of information on mountain lions for the public, there were two mountain lions killed in Santa Clara County in 2000, two in 2001, four in 2002, four in 2003, one in 2004 and two in 2005.
Since 1890, there have been 13 mountain lion attacks in California involving 15 people. Six of those people died, including the two that died in Morgan Hill in 1909, though the deaths were attributed to rabies contracted as a result of the attack and not the attack itself.
There have been no recorded attacks on humans in Morgan Hill since 1909. “They have always been out there,” said Tamara Clark-Shear, public information officer for Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department. “We have interpretative signage instructing the public how to live with the wildlife in the parks. We post smaller signs when we have specific sightings.”
The area where Austin’s home is located is “prime habitat” for the big cats, Clark-Shear said.
“There’s plenty of brush and cover and water,” she said. “(Austin) went about things the right way, in moving out her livestock until she has a more secure spot and in contacting Fish and Game.”
Swauger said the department will conduct a necropsy on the lion to determine if there’s anything abnormal with the lion, or if it had rabies.
“That’s standard procedure so we can determine if there was something about it’s condition that caused it to behave in a certain way,” he said. “We also want to alert the livestock owner if the animal had rabies, particularly if any of the livestock survived the attack.”
One goat did survive an attack Monday.
