Protests After Palo Alto Cops Kill Mountain Lion

[Sequoia]

The Palo Alto Police Department has been swamped with calls protesting their shooting of a mountain lion Monday.

The graphic footage -- captured exclusively by a CBS 5 camera -- showed what happened when the animal wandered too far into a neighborhood in the heart of the city. The mountain lion was discovered in a tree, and was shot and killed.

Concerned calls have been coming in from around the country, and one police captain called it the most vocal response to any officer involved shooting he's seen -- whether the victim was an animal or human.

One animal rights group says officers acted too quickly, and that the animal could have been spared if the department had been better prepared. Police say calls had been made for a tranquilizer gun, but they stand by their decision to kill the animal because they say it posed an immediate threat to public safety.

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http://cbs5.com/news/local/2004/05/18/Protests_After_Palo_Alto_Cops_Kill_Mountain_Lion.html


Honestly, this lion was no threat. He was snoozing in a tree and had been in that area since dawn. Bunch of fat women were going on about how some dopey dog "saved" all them from being gobbled up. School kids too. No, I doubt it. These people have no clue that they are the ones invading the cat's area and there's no food or hardly any area for the Mountain Lion's to roam in. It was disgusting to hear them talk like that.

[maveric]

1. Just the other day the San Diego Sherrifs dept. killed one who

walked through a residential neighborhood and took refuge up in a tree. No trying to capture it, no tranquilizer darts, they just shot it dead!
This neighborhood borders a wooded canyon area. The mountain lion's habitat.

[Taverner]

2. With all due respect, ever been face to face with a mountain lion?

I have - I don't blame the cops...

[DrWeird]

6. I have too.

Only the mountain lion wasn't face to face with the cop, it was tree-ed by a dog. So unless it was about to leap at the cop, I don't blame the protestors.

[Amerpie]

3. Reminds me

of the cop in TN last year who shot a family's dog in front of them. Some people with guns just can't wait for a chance to use them. I know. I was 30 before I had a job that didn't involve carrying one.

[kaos]

4. Here kitty kitty.....It'a a Mountain lion not a little cute cat

A mountain lion that had prowled the streets of residential Palo Alto for hours was shot and killed Monday after a dog chased it up a tree.
An 11-year-old black Labrador named Kelsy caught scent of the big cat and bolted for it, chasing it up a tree until police arrived, according to the dog's owner, John Furrier
snip
Police had been on the lookout for the lion after it was spotted earlier in the day. Officers who arrived to find it in the tree didn't have a tranquilizer gun, and the animal started to run off, so they decided to bring it down, said Capt. Torin Fischer.


The neighborhood where the lion was shot was far from the mountains the big cats normally call home. This was in the middle of residential Palo Alto, just a few blocks from an elementary school.



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=817&e=4&u=/ap/mountain_lion_killed

[Beaverhausen]

5. They trap bears who get loose...

...in neighborhoods around here. They aren't any smaller than mountain lions.

Many more mountain lions are killed by humans than humans are killed by mountain lions.

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

7. The police did the right thing

Palo Alto police did exactly the right thing in shooting the animal, even though it wasn't attacking at the time, said the University of California-Davis' Lee Fitzhugh, who has studied the animals and their interaction with humans for about 20 years.

``Lions are attracted to children as prey,'' he said. ``I guess because they're about the right size. It's very dangerous to have them around in that situation.''

He also said a tranquilizer would not have sedated the mountain lion right away, and it could have jumped out of the tree and escaped -- too big a risk with three elementary schools nearby.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/8701474.htm?1c

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