SPCALA: New Wildlife Response Plan 'Not Enough'

The president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles commended Monday the Santa Monica Police department that wanders into the city, but said it is "not enough." 

The new plan was announced at the end of June in at Second Street in downtown Santa Monica.

In a post on the SPCALA website, president Madeline Bernstein called on the Department of Fish and Game to change the tools it uses to subdue mountain lions. She said the experts who collaborated with the Santa Monica Police Department to develop its plan believe Telazol and a dart gun only serve to agitate the animals.

It was clear from the discussion that there are tranquilizers and delivery systems available to quickly and safely drug and control a mountain lion so that lethal force would remain a last resort. In other words, a drug that worked quickly and a "gun" that delivered the drug in a less painful and provocative method may have saved this lion's life.

The 95-pound animal was killed May 22 in a courtyard just a block from the after police officers and Fish and Game wardens attempted to sedate it using a tranquilizer dart gun. After it was tranquilized, police said the animal tried to charge out of the courtyard, so they blasted the glass doors with a fire hose and sprayed pepper-balls before ultimately firing the fatal shot.

A National Parks Service biologist who tracks the local mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains has said he was able to subdue and relocate a puma in the Pacific Palisades using a much stealthier blow dart tranquilizer.

But the authorities insist they killed the lion in the interest of public safety.

A Fish and Game spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

"When an animal is displaying unusually bold or aggressive behavior toward humans, DFG will not relocate the animal because of the risk it could pose to others," the agency’s website states.

Bernstein said in her post Monday that the necropsy report fails to state how much Telazol was detected in the lion.

It is therefore unknown whether the lion reacted to the pain of being stabbed by a dart, the number of people surrounding him, the Telazol itself which may have agitated before sedating, or because no drug was in his system at all and he was simply acting like a lion.

Its new response plan, the Santa Monica Police Department says it will notify experts, obtain appropriate equipment and tools related to wildlife capture and pre-incident training for first response personnel

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