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Rescued SoCal mountain lion kitten undergoes leg amputation
ktla ^ | 08/23/2026 | https://ktla.com/news/california/rescued-socal-mountain-lion-kitten-undergoes-leg-amputation/

Posted on 08/23/2026 2:59:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, National Park Service and Los Angeles Zoo had been monitoring the kitten after researchers tracking his collared mother, P-129, noticed changes in her movements that suggested the den had been abandoned.

Using GPS data, telemetry and remote cameras, wildlife officials watched the den for several days in hopes the mother would return. On the fifth day, officials intervened after determining the kitten was alone and his condition was declining.

Crimson was initially brought to the Los Angeles Zoo, where veterinary staff found him to be generally healthy but missing toes on one hind foot. He was later flown to the Oakland Zoo for long-term care.

Because of his young age and permanent injury, wildlife officials determined Crimson could not be released back into the wild.

Over the next several months, Oakland Zoo’s veterinary and animal care teams monitored the development of Crimson’s injured limb and consulted with specialists while trying multiple bandaging and bracing techniques.

As Crimson grew larger and became more active, however, protecting the injured area became increasingly difficult, zoo officials said.

After months of treatment and consultation, the team determined that amputating the affected limb would give Crimson the best chance for long-term comfort, mobility, healing and quality of life. The surgery was successfully performed by board-certified veterinary surgeon Dr. Kim Tong, according to the zoo.

(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS:

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1 posted on 08/23/2026 2:59:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Did they give him an old-fashioned pirate’s peg leg?


2 posted on 08/23/2026 3:09:01 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt (Fascist, deplorable, and proud of it!)
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To: BenLurkin

Poor Crimson. That’s his name.
This is a mountain lion who definitely must remain under care. Most likely, he can never be released in the wild.
One of his rear paws is deformed, and can’t bear much weight. If he was born in the wild, he could not keep up with the other little Cat-lettes, ( playing roughhousing, learning to hunt) and his Mom may have decided to abandon him to the always lurking Coyotes.


3 posted on 08/23/2026 3:09:19 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: BenLurkin

On NatGeo Wild, Dr. Pol often amputates a leg from cats and dogs, and they do fine. This one will get to live and hopefully have a nice life.


4 posted on 08/23/2026 3:10:52 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

5 posted on 08/23/2026 3:10:53 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: BenLurkin

Put him in a zoo or find a home where somebody knows how to care for him.


6 posted on 08/23/2026 3:13:44 PM PDT by Jonty30 (When I go to the kitchen to find food, I get disappointed because all I find are ingredients.)
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To: BenLurkin

In Russia, peasants often crippled wolf pups so the parents would continue to raise them, only finding they could not keep up as they became adolescents.

It was a supposed to be a good way to keep down the wolf population.


7 posted on 08/23/2026 3:20:36 PM PDT by marktwain (----------------------)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Curiosity nearly killed the Cat!


8 posted on 08/23/2026 3:21:07 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: BenLurkin

Mountain lions in California are so overpopulated they are eating porcupines.


9 posted on 08/23/2026 3:22:32 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: BenLurkin

Just listening to a podcast with Charles W. Cooke. He described the insane UK “healthcare system.” When his 80 year old father needed a hip replacement, the lovely socialist, everyone has healthcare UK system informed him he could have a new hip......in 3 years. He gathered up what funds he could and paid privately.

Mountain lions in the evil American healthcare system have better care.


10 posted on 08/23/2026 3:43:12 PM PDT by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try. )
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To: Carry_Okie

“Mountain lions in California are so overpopulated they are eating porcupines.”

Not unusual. Mountain lions do eat porcupines, and they can be a regular part of a cougar’s diet where their ranges overlap. Experienced cats use a specific technique—flipping the porcupine on its back and attacking the unquilled belly—though inexperienced young lions can often get painfully quilled in the face or paws during the fight. While deer and elk remain their primary food source, cougars are opportunistic hunters that readily take smaller prey like porcupines, rabbits, and beavers when large game is scarce. Animals seem to adapt.

Fortunately California mountain lions do kill many animals related to farms like rats, gopher, and possum, also. So they clean a lot of vermin out of the farms, besides our beneficial animals, too. But they also kill sheep, goats, and miniture horses. And in the cat world they have the second longest leaping ability of any cat at roughly 45 feet in a bound. The big cat for leap is the snow leopard of Asia which has been recorded leaping up to 50 feet (15 meters) across rugged mountain terrain.

They are protected in California. In California, unlawfully killing a mountain lion is a misdemeanor. It is punishable by up to one year in a county jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

wy69


11 posted on 08/23/2026 3:54:11 PM PDT by whitney69 (`)
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To: whitney69

>>>snow leopard of Asia which has been recorded leaping up to 50 feet<<<

That is downhill! lol


12 posted on 08/23/2026 4:10:23 PM PDT by jroehl (And how we burned in the camps later - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago)
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To: Carry_Okie

I remember when California banned mountain Lion hunting. I said that in a few years they will have a problem with mountain lions. Well it’s here!


13 posted on 08/23/2026 4:14:45 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (REOPEN THE CLOSED MENTAL HOSPITALS! Closed in the 1970s, murders by crazies sky rocketed!)
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To: Dr. Sivana

That’s the idea! Thanx!


14 posted on 08/23/2026 4:27:25 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt (Fascist, deplorable, and proud of it!)
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To: whitney69
More nature myth BS.

Mountain lions do eat porcupines, and they can be a regular part of a cougar’s diet

Under current conditions, yes. With plenty of food, no.

I could show you photographs taken by our local Open Space Authority of both bobcats and mountain lions, the best they got in ten years. Those animals were obviously starving.

They are protected in California. In California, unlawfully killing a mountain lion is a misdemeanor. It is punishable by up to one year in a county jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

Since only four urban counties decided the whole State needed more predators, more mountain lions are hunted and killed than when hunters PAID to take them legally, but now we PAY for bureaucrats to manage the consequences. Meanwhile, ungulate numbers are historically low.

So they clean a lot of vermin out of the farms, besides our beneficial animals, too. But they also kill sheep, goats, and miniture horses.

There are many options that come at less destructive consequences, the chief of which you are quite apparently not cognizant: FUEL ACCUMULATIONS. Had we more sheep, goats, and cows in the field, the catastrophic fuel load of brush and trees would not nearly be the problem that they are, not to mention that people would have access to more healthful food. Those animals take people to manage them, but ranchers and pastorlaists can't do it economically because the Nature nuts of this world are totally good with causing mass extinctions of plants and insects

, you know, the base of the food pyramid. And with the plants goes soil productivity.

So as far as I'm concerned you can take that 45ft leap. You have no idea what it takes to rebuild the microbial foundations of productive soil.

15 posted on 08/23/2026 4:27:36 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: whitney69

If you kill one, put a cheap gun by the corpse and wrap its paws around the handle. And put a MAGA hat on the ground like it fell off the cougar’s head.


16 posted on 08/23/2026 4:32:05 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt (Fascist, deplorable, and proud of it!)
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To: Carry_Okie
I could show you photographs taken by our local Open Space Authority of both bobcats and mountain lions, the best they got in ten years. Those animals were obviously starving.

The Democrats passed a law requiring vegan diets for the animals. This is the grim result.

17 posted on 08/23/2026 4:36:28 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt (Fascist, deplorable, and proud of it!)
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To: BenLurkin
"The cat was flown to the Oakland Zoo for long-term care."

Thank goodness all of other Californians' needs are met and there's enough money to fly a cat half way across the state for "long-term care."


18 posted on 08/23/2026 5:05:11 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: BenLurkin

Im trying to understand how it walks. I can’t find an informative photo. Was just the paw amputated, and it walks on a stump?


19 posted on 08/23/2026 9:48:29 PM PDT by KittyKares
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