mountain lion attacks ... unreal

re;

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — A mountain lion attacked a 6-year-old boy Sunday in Northern California and began dragging him away before his father and another man fought the animal off, authorities said.





The boy suffered bite wounds and scratches his head and neck following the attack, which was reported about 1 p.m. at a hiking trail in an open space preserve near the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino, Lt. Paul Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

He was recovering at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where he was listed in fair condition, hospital spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said.

The boy was among a group of 10 — comprised of his parents, another pair of parents and kids — hiking at the Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve. The boy's father told investigators his son was about 10 feet ahead of the group when a mountain lion "came out of nowhere" and attacked the boy, Foy said.

"It's quite extraordinary the lion would attack a person with so many people in the immediate vicinity," Foy said.

He said the mountain lion attacked in the same way it would at a group of deer and targeting the easiest prey, that being the smallest member of the group.

The boy's father and the other male adult in the group shouted and acted aggressively toward the mountain lion to scare it away, Foy said.

"He's very, very lucky that the parents were so close," he said.

Authorities closed trails in the area and looked for the mountain lion before calling of the search at nightfall.

Foy said authorities planned to deploy dogs on the trail Monday to track the animal. If DNA samples from the lion's saliva on the boy's torn shirt match any animal captured, it will be killed "in the interest of public safety," he said.

There have been 13 verified mountain lion attacks in California between 1986 and 2013, three of which resulted in deaths, according to the Fish and Wildfire department.

The trail where the attack occurred was on land owned by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which buys and protects land in the San Francisco Bay area.


..
.

Well I wonder if we will see an Action Filed from the family. Since clearly the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District " Failed " to control the Purchased animals on their Land... HaHa !
Thanks for posting HH1..

That is a perfect example of no predator control! Maybe the boy will grow up to be a trapper?

It's a shame and should be a crime when these nut job politicians and activists put animals over human life.

I've gone bald scratching my head trying to make sense of the upside down way of thinking by the jkesss who put the safety of animals above humans. Not only do we have overpopulation of Lions in Ca. but last year they outlawed Hunting Bears and Bobcats w/ dogs. Now fish and game cant sleep because of the Bear sightings everywhere in towns. Didn't take long for them to come back down from the trees.

That's why I stay as far away from Ca. as possible.
Real nut jobs on most topics.

Petty ironic that you can get a lisc. to smoke and grow weed in Ca. but hunting Lions and bears, Dredging for Gold and everything else you want to do is illegal. When I was young all this was legal and pot was not. now pot is legal and everything that makes good sense is illegal. Do you think that the pot heads are making the laws now in Ca.???