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3d ago

Officials Euthanize Mountain Lion After 11-Year-Old Girl Bitten in Malibu

Wildlife authorities have sent forensic samples from the cougar and the victim’s clothing for DNA analysis to confirm the animal’s involvement

FILE: A mountain lion prowls above Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Pier and the Pacific Ocean.
A mountain lion (Puma concolor) is pictured at the Wildlife Rescue Center in Alajuela, Costa Rica, on September 16, 2024. (Photo by Ezequiel BECERRA / AFP) (Photo by EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP via Getty Images)
A mountain lion approaching the camera while walking through blooming bushes. The scene is in Torres del Paine National Park, in Chile’s Patagonia region.

Overview

  • On Aug. 10 a cougar ambushed an 11-year-old girl near her family’s chicken coop on Pacific Coast Highway, inflicting bites to her arm, leg and lower back.
  • A family member deployed a stun gun to drive off the lion after it chased the girl’s mother and sibling, and Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel treated and transported the child to Los Robles Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
  • California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers located a young adult male mountain lion hiding on the property later that evening and humanely euthanized it as a public-safety measure.
  • Officials have forwarded the lion’s remains along with the girl’s clothing to a Sacramento forensics laboratory for DNA testing to verify it was the attacking animal.
  • This marked the 27th confirmed mountain lion attack in California since 1986 and highlights risks posed by unsecured poultry and dense vegetation near homes.