Lioness, Cub Captured in Area of Park Where Little Girl Was Mauled

A female mountain lion and her cub were captured at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park near San Juan Capistrano after a two-day search by wardens from the state Department of Fish and Game, a department official said Sunday.

The lions were trapped early Saturday morning “in the same general area” where another mountain lion--believed to be the animal that mauled a 5-year-old El Toro girl earlier this year--was killed by a tracker last March.

The female lion captured Saturday “is not the same cat that mauled the little child some time ago,” Earl Lauppe, wildlife management supervisor for Southern California, said in a telephone interview Sunday. “We are confident that that cat was the one that we (killed) at the time.”

After the lion was killed in March, rangers said its paw prints matched in size and shape those found at the place where the girl was mauled. Parents of the injured girl disagree, saying they believe that the mother lion captured Saturday could have been responsible for the attack. A family spokesman said Sunday that the capture of the two cats was “something to celebrate.”

On March 23, Laura Michelle Small and her mother, Susan, were wading in a shallow creek near the end of a nature trail in a remote section of the park when a lion grabbed the girl by the head.

A hiker who heard cries for help drove the animal off by clubbing it with a branch. A cat believed to be the animal that attacked the child was shot to death the day after the incident, when a tranquilizer dart failed to subdue it.

Laura has undergone six surgeries since the attack. In addition to numerous cuts on her face and scalp, the girl suffered multiple small skull fractures. The left side of her brain was damaged, and the right side of her body was partly paralyzed.

“Laura is at a point where she is improving much more slowly than she was,” said Mike Madigan, a licensed private investigator working for the Smalls’ attorney. “It’s much less noticeable every day.

“She can’t leave the house without a helmet because she’s missing a large piece of her skull,” Madigan said Sunday. “She still has a pronounced speech impediment.”

Parents Troubled

According to Madigan, the girl’s parents have been troubled because they have long believed that the cat that was killed was not the one that attacked their daughter. Madigan said that his own investigation leads him to believe that a lioness and a cub were in the vicinity at the time of the attack on Laura. News of the recent capture brought relief to the family.

“I think when we initially found out that there was a cat down there causing problems and had been seen several times and was obviously not a very shy mountain lion, we were very concerned that perhaps something would happen to some other person or child,” Don Small said Sunday. “We were very glad to hear that they had captured the cat.”

According to Lauppe, officials closed a part of the 7,500-acre park last Wednesday evening where the animals had been sighted. The cordoned-off section included trails but no campgrounds, he said.

Early last Friday, a cadre of five to 10 wardens, biologists and park personnel--aided by hounds to track the cats--began their trek through the park. By Saturday, the hunters sighted the animals. After tranquilizing the mother, state wardens captured both animals, Lauppe said.

Cats to Be Studied

The cats, which are reported to be in good condition, were transported Saturday to the fish and game department’s Sacramento laboratories for further study. “It was a routine type capture,” Lauppe said. “Everything went well.”

According to Madigan, the county has denied the $28-million damage claim the Smalls filed in June, in which they alleged that park officials failed to warn visitors of wildlife hazards in the park. Richard J. Staskus, the Smalls’ attorney, was notified of the county’s denial last Thursday, Madigan said.

The denial frees the family to file a civil lawsuit against the county. An additional $28-million claim has also been filed against the state, which has yet to respond.

“We’ve been extremely concerned that the park remained open while the county officials knew that other lions were there and that this specific lion was still there,” Madigan said. “The information we have indicates that this specific lion had been sighted for previous days before this weekend.”

“Now if this lion that they took out of Caspers Park (Saturday) can be shown to have attacked Laura Small, that means that the County of Orange (which owns the park) allowed for the possibility of another attack, and they put safety second,” Madigan said.

Park officials refused to comment on the capture or the allegations of negligence.