Dear Friends,

P-22 recently made the news for an incident that resulted in a leashed dog being killed. My heart breaks for the dog owner. I am so very sorry. I wish I could bring his dog back. I have five dogs myself, and I know how devastated he must feel. It’s a testament to his compassion that the dog owner, even in his grief, has stated he does not want harm to come to P-22.

As devastating as this is when it happens, P-22 doesn’t know he is being “bad.” He was being a mountain lion. It is important to note he displayed no aggression toward the person walking the dog. We will never know what P-22 was thinking in this situation. A dog resembles P-22’s natural prey. It was dark. Mountain lions can also get tunnel vision and in the dark, he may just have been focused on the prey and didn’t even register the leash. But there is no way to know.

What we do know: As to human safety, there is no evidence that a mountain lion attacking livestock or pets, which resemble its natural prey, pose an increased risk to humans.

All wildlife are indeed, wild, and living with them can be risky and challenging at times. But attacks are very rare. In California, over 100 years with a population of 40 million people, there have been about 22 confirmed attacks by a mountain lion on people, with six being fatal. These statistics don’t diminish the tragedy when a person (or pet) is killed or injured by a lion, and we never want an attack to happen, but it puts the risk in perspective. For example, in California, automobiles cause on average about 4,000 deaths annually. As statistics show, living in mountain lion country is much safer than living in car country.

We don’t want people to live in fear. We want people to respect wild animals, but not unnecessarily fear them. We want to help people feel safer. Please let us know how we can help.

We are committed to providing support to give people the tools to successfully coexist with mountain lions and other wildlife in this highly urbanized landscape. The National Wildlife Federation is hosting a virtual educational session on Coexisting with Cougars TONIGHT with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Cougar Conservancy and California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

You can register here.

Please reach out if you have questions. We are here to help.
Beth Pratt, National Wildlife Federation