Mountain lion cornered in backyard is killed as it makes a run for it, Texas cops say

A mountain lion seen sprinting past homes and leaping over fences in a suburban Texas neighborhood was killed by authorities.

Video shared on social media July 11 captured the cougar bolting in between parked cars before climbing into the backyard of a home. A Laredo resident was driving when they spotted the animal, expressing shock and uncertainty about just what he was seeing.

“I don’t know if it was mountain lion or what you would call wildcat, but the thing was huge,” he said, adding that it was in the Concord Hills neighborhood, on the city’s east side.

Officers and game wardens responded to reported sightings and cornered the mountain lion in the backyard of a home, the Laredo Police Department said in a July 12 Facebook post. The big cat was backed into a small space, but suddenly bolted, and was killed as it tried to escape by fleeing onto a neighbor’s property.

“Unfortunately, the animal’s aggression and natural instincts for survival resulted in the animal being neutralized,” the department said. “We were hoping for a better outcome but were left with no choice due to the potential danger the surrounding neighborhood would have been exposed to if the feline escaped and encountered a person or domesticated animal in its path.”

While the department emphasized that game wardens were also present at the scene, it’s unclear who killed the animal.

While many applauded authorities, some were angry the mountain lion was killed, blaming officials for not doing more to end the situation peacefully.

“If any of you had actually tried, cat would still be alive and relocated after being tranquilized and not neutralized,” one commenter wrote.

“Hopefully after this our city will be educated on how to handle wild animals roaming our community in the future,” said another, also asking why the mountain lion wasn’t tranquilized and moved.

Though mountain lions are often tranquilized and relocated, it’s not always the best or safest option depending on the situation, experts say.

It can take between 10 to 15 minutes for a tranquilizer dart to do its work, Jb Minter, Director of Animal Health at the North Carolina Zoo, told WGHP in 2019. They can be even less effective if the animal is upset.

“Animals can almost push through where basically the drugs don’t work as effectively as if the animal was calm,” Minter told the station, adding that each moment the animal is conscious, it’s still capable of hurting people or animals around them.

Mountain lions are rare in Texas, such that experts don’t really know how many there are, McClatchy News reported. Most sightings are centered around the Trans-Pecos region and southwest Texas, but they have occasionally been documented as far north as the Panhandle, and near Dallas-Fort Worth, and many counties in between.

This story was originally published July 14, 2024 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Mountain lion cornered in backyard is killed as it makes a run for it, Texas cops say."