[SoCal Pubbie]

Several mountain bikers attacked, one dead, one in hospital. About four miles from my house. This is an ongoing problem in South Orange County.

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[billorites]

the "aggressive animal."

"Misunderstood," is probably more accurate.

[jwalburg]

The area is being treated as a crime scene.

Hope they don't forget to read the lion its Miranda rights.

[Bedford Forrest]

"The area is being treated as a crime scene."

What the f@#k, over? After they rename this mountain lion an "upland fur person", presumably so they can arraign him, what are they going to charge him with - cannibalism? Or was it Bigfoot that did the deed. Things are very strange in Kali, no doubt about it.

[DeSoto]

I know that having this incident within 4 miles of your house is a bit scary, but given that, I am glad that this happened near LA.

If this happened in the dingweeds of Montana, Idaho, Oregon or wherever, the fruits and nuts of LA that fuel the environmental extremism wouldn't get the message. If the LA extremists become afraid to walk outside, then perhaps something will change.

Personally, I think that Mountain Lions should be very rare and only kept in zoos.

[expatpat]

Where is this? Near El Toro and Laguna?

[paul51]

Officials were initially trying to capture the animal, but because it keeps coming back and is described as "very, very aggressive," they are now considering it for termination

Yeah. Send out a few more 'observers' and study it for a month or so. After all, the animal has only killed one person and attacked a few others. Incidentally, that women throwing rocks at it and chasing it off has some guts. To bad she wasn't armed. She could have cleaned up the whole situation right then and there.

[ambrose]

Mountain Lions are no more dangerous than your average kitten.

[Bullish]

People peddaling along do look like prey to these cats, ya' know?

Most of them are probably half starving and are opportunists by nature, being a cat.

Now they'll hunt it down and kill it like that does some kind of justice, when it was only doing what should be expected of it.

[Nick Danger]

the mountain lion, apparently trying to defend it's kill, pounced on one of the women.

Sister Mary Yardstick sez:

If "it is" would not fit there, then don't put an apostrophe in "its".

[Redcloak]

It's a good thing that hunting mountain lions is banned in the State Constitution!

[Amerigomag]

Mountain Lion On Loose After Fatal Attack

I don't know whether to say "what a bizarre title" or "only in the mind of liberals".

Of course the animal is "on the loose". That's what he does.

Maybe liberals think that cats , once it's explained to them, respond to reason and turn themselves in voluntarily after having committed the "sin" of trying to survive.

[Eva]

I used to live in Mission Viejo, just above the green belt area that runs from the rec center through the south part of town, and people used to see the mtn lions roaming through the area all the time. So, now they have matured and multiplied.

Remember when that girl was mauled at Ortega?

[Becki]

Officials were initially trying to capture the animal, but because it keeps coming back and is described as "very, very aggressive," they are now considering it for termination.

Considering???

Becki

[XHogPilot]

Additional Info:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040109/D7VVH8380.html
Mountain Lion Badly Injures Calif. Woman
Jan 9, 3:50 PM (ET)
By GREG RISLING

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A mountain lion attacked and severely injured a bicyclist in an Orange County park and may have killed a man whose body was found nearby, authorities said.

The 2-year-old male cat, which weighed about 110 pounds, was later shot and killed, and its body was taken to a laboratory for testing, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Fish and Game Department.

Anne Hjelle had been riding with a friend in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park shortly before dusk Thursday when the mountain lion attacked her, said Orange County Fire Capt. Stephen Miller.

The lion pounced on the 30-year-old's back, grabbed her by her head and began dragging her, said her friend, Debbie Nichols. Nichols said she screamed for help and grabbed Hjelle's legs in a struggle to free her.

"He dragged us down ... about 100 yards into the brush and I just kept screaming," Nichols said. "This guy would not let go. He had a hold of her face."

Other cyclists in the area threw rocks at the animal until it fled.

Hjelle was airlifted to Mission Hospital, where her condition was upgraded to serious early Friday, a nursing supervisor said. She had been listed as critical.

After the attack, the body of Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, 35, of Foothill Ranch was found at the top of a trail near a bicycle. Authorities weren't sure how long he had been there and couldn't confirm if the man was killed by the mountain lion, but Miller said, "it's pretty obvious that an animal was involved." An autopsy was planned Friday.

Authorities said a second mountain lion in the area was hit by a car and killed late Thursday and would also be tested.

Including Thursday's incident, there have been 13 mountain lion attacks on humans in California over the past 114 years, five of them fatal, said Doug Updike, a biologist with the state Fish and Game Department.

Last September, game wardens shot and wounded an aggressive mountain lion spotted near an equestrian center in San Juan Capistrano. The lion was later found and killed, state officials said.

In 1986, 5-year-old Laura Small was attacked while looking for tadpoles with her mother in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park in Orange County. The girl's skull was partially crushed and she was left blind in one eye and paralyzed on her right side.

A 6-year-old boy was mauled in the same park a few months later. County supervisors closed most of the park to children for nearly a decade afterward.

Updike estimates there are between 4,000 and 6,000 adult lions roaming the Golden State, with usually five to seven mountain lions per 100 square miles. State law prohibits hunting or killing them.