Summit County Citizens Voice

Mountain lions generally shy away from people, but a young male lion was recently euthanized near Salida after it entered a home and killed a dog. Colorado Division of Wildlife officials think the cat may have been malnourished. PHOTO COURTESY THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

Colorado Division of Wildlife officers euthanize cat after tranquilizing it; lion may have been malnourished

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY —  An apparently malnourished young mountain lion entered a Chaffee County residence Thursday afternoon, killing one dog and briefly trapping a mother and her two children inside the house until Chaffee County Sheriffs Deputies evacuated them.

Colorado Division of Wildlife officials said it’s highly unusual for a mountain lion to enter a building.

Wildlife officers were able to tranquilize the lion, which appeared to be significantly underweight for its age, according to Jim Aragon, the Colorado Division of Wildlife manager for the area. After evaluating the lion’s condition, Aragon said, a decision was made to euthanize the animal.

“We will know more after we get the results of the necropsy, but this animal was not demonstrating normal behavior,” Aragon said.

The incident began just after 4 p.m. when the lion chased a small dog through a pet door into the home, about nine miles northwest of Salida.

Michelle Bese and two children, ages two and five, were in the house when the lion entered. The two-year old was asleep in a bedroom, and the five-year old and Mrs. Bese were sitting at the kitchen table when the animal came in the house. There were also four other small dogs in the home.

Bese said that at first, she did not know if it was a coyote or lion until another dog confronted the lion and she could tell what it was.  At this point, she took her five-year old and ran to the back bedroom where the two-year old was sleeping.

She shut the door behind her and called 911.

Chaffee County Sheriff’s deputies arriving at the scene and helped the woman and her children escape through a bedroom window. They also opened the home’s front and rear doors to provide the lion with an opportunity to leave.

However, when two DOW officers arrived a few minutes later, the lion was still in the house.

“I looked in a bedroom window and could see a dog which I believed to be dead,” said Aragon. ”The lion was in the same room, so I pounded on the window and side of the house in an attempt to get the lion to leave through one of the open doors.”

After several other attempts to get the lion to leave, Aragon and Wildlife Officer Kim Woodruff, along with Chaffee County Sherriff’s Deputy Rod Lane, entered the house through the back bedroom window. The lion was in a room directly across the hall.

“We cracked the door open wide enough to see the lion and were able to shoot it with a tranquilizer dart,” Aragon said. “We were able to locate four of the five dogs and get them transported to a vet clinic,” he said.
All of the dogs, which included a Jack Russell Terrier and four Shih-Tzu, received wounds during the encounter. One dog eventually died, and two others were seriously injured.

The young male lion, which is believed to be about a year and half old, only weighed about 40 pounds.   “A healthy lion of that age should be closer to 60 pounds,” said Aragon.

Its remains will be sent to a DOW lab in Fort Collins for analysis, which is standard procedure.

Wildlife officers say it is rare for a mountain lion to enter a building.  “We hope to learn more after we get the results of the necropsy, but this animal was not demonstrating normal behavior,” he said.

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