Residents of a Colorado mountain town are struggling to coexist with mountain lions that have hunted more than a dozen of their pet dogs in two months.
Wildlife officials have received 10 reports of 12 dogs being killed or attacked in Nederland since Nov. 1, with one report involving three dogs, Colorado Parks and Wildlife told McClatchy News. Nederland is nestled within the mountains of Colorado’s Front Range.
In early December, pet owners were desperate for help after nine dogs were killed or taken since August, McClatchy News previously reported. Wildlife officials held community discussions to share tips on how to keep pets safe.
But the attacks continued. Pet owners have logged encounters on a digital tracker cobbled together by locals that shows where and when attacks or close calls have occurred, as well as the nature of the incidents.
Some of the most recent entries describe mountain lions trying to “snatch” a dog off a porch, a lion killing three dogs despite the owner “trying to defend them,” two dogs disappearing one after the other from the same area, and so on.
One particularly chilling entry said a mountain lion attacked a 100-pound Doberman and took the dog over a fence at night. “Did not survive,” the Dec. 3 post said.
State statutes allow civilians to kill a mountain lion to protect livestock or defend human safety. But statutes don’t allow for killing a lion “solely to protect a pet,” Kristin Cannon told McClatchy News. Cannon is a deputy regional manager at Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
“We generally do not relocate mountain lions from good lion habitat to somewhere else for being a nuisance or causing problems. If the lion’s behavior makes it a threat to human safety we will try to lethally remove it,” Cannon said in an email.
Living among so many attacks and close calls has some residents fearful for their children’s safety, The Colorado Sun reported.
One such resident is Pam Rose, a horse trainer who is sure lions have been “actively stalking” her mini horse and her daughter’s pony, the outlet reported.
Rose told the outlet she’s nervous about her 11-year-old daughter’s safety and will no longer let her walk around the neighborhood or ride alone. She’s taken to carrying a 9mm pistol when she and her daughter walk their dog or feed their horses, she told the outlet.
On Monday, Dec. 26, Caroline Bennett took to a Nederland Facebook group to warn others that a lion had snatched her Aussie shepherd from their porch, The Colorado Sun reported.
“[It] was like a dragon took him out of the sky and then leapt 20 ft off the deck,” she wrote, the outlet reported. “I know we’ve all heard it before but this is obviously NOT normal coexistence behavior and I’m now scared for our children (and the grownups after seeing the size & strength of the lion).”
Then on Tuesday, Dec. 27, a mountain lion attacked two dogs right in front of their owners in the same area, the Longmont Times-Call reported. People were able to chase the lion off in the first attack, but one resident shot and killed a lion when it targeted their dog.
Wildlife officials decided not to charge the person who shot the lion because the lion had already been behaving in a dangerous way by getting so close to humans, and they had a reasonable fear for their own safety, Cannon said.
Agency officials had already planned to remove that specific lion from the area, Cannon said, but not necessarily because of the dog attacks, which she said is wild cats being wild cats.
“They don’t see a distinction between pets and wildlife,” she said. “But in this particular instance, these incidents were occurring in close proximity to people, and the lion didn’t act like they had fear of people. That gave us a little concern.”
