The 5-year-old boy survived his brutal attack but the mountain lion didn’t. Another local big cat is really happy that game wardens have instant DNA testing available these days. This isn’t one of those small villages in central America. The incident happened in Southern California, near Calabasas.
Boy dragged across the lawn
Mom didn’t think twice about letting her 5-year-old boy play alone in the family front yard. He was cheerfully “playing near his house” on Thursday, August 26, and never saw what hit him.
A 65-pound mountain lion pounced in, grabbed him by the throat, and “dragged him about 45 yards” across the family’s front lawn.
According to Fish and Wildlife Captain Patrick Foy, the child’s mother didn’t know she could move that fast. “The true hero of this story is his mom because she absolutely saved her son’s life.”
All it took was noise of the commotion and she was flying. “She ran out of the house and started punching and striking the mountain lion with her bare hands” until the cat let go of her boy. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do.
Without wasting any time, the worried parents “immediately drove the boy to the hospital, where law enforcement were notified of the attack and sent a wildlife officer to the scene.”
They got there just in time. Doctors relate that the child “suffered significant traumatic injuries to his head and upper torso but was in stable condition.” The child is being treated in Los Angeles.
Here kitty, kitty.
As soon as the Wildlife officer arrived on the scene he located a suspect in the attack on the young boy. At the house was “a mountain lion crouching in the bushes with its ‘ears back and hissing’ at him,” Foy describes.
The cat was still hungry and considering it’s chances of dining on the game warden. “Due to its behavior and proximity to the attack, the warden believed it was likely the attacking lion and to protect public safety shot and killed it on site.”
Once he got back to the office, the Wildlife official was glad to learn that “DNA tests confirmed” the lion he killed was the “one responsible for attacking” the boy.
He was relieved to hear it because it turned out his buddies took a second suspect into custody. He would have hated to have killed the wrong lion. They may be deadly but they’re magnificent animals and not many of them are left.
While the officer was neutralizing one lion at the scene of the attack, another “mountain lion spotted in the area was tranquilized.” The officials ran DNA tests on that one as well and it had nothing to do with the attack on the boy so they let it go.
The second lion was “released into the wild unharmed after tested to be sure it was not involved in the attack.” Meanwhile, the child’s mom has a reputation in the neighborhood. She’s not a cougar but she runs like a cheetah.