‘Preventive Hunts’ Possible : Boy Reported Satisfactory as Lion Search Continues

As the search continued Monday in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park for a mountain lion that attacked a 6-year old Huntington Beach boy, a leading state wildlife official said it may be time to allow the killing of some cougars in the southern portion of Orange County.

Previously, such “preventive hunts” of mountain lions have been authorized only to protect livestock. The animals have proliferated throughout the state since sport hunting of mountain lions was banned by the Legislature in 1971.

Sunday’s victim, Justin Mellon, was in satisfactory condition Monday, said a spokeswoman at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo. While walking ahead of his family on a hiking trail, not far from the site of a March 23 attack on 5-year-old Laura Michele Small of El Toro, Justin was seized by a cougar which attempted to drag him off. The boy’s father, knife in hand, rushed the cat, which released the youth. Justin, asking “Am I going to live?,” was carried down the trail and was airlifted to the hospital.

“He’s doing pretty well,” hospital nursing supervisor Jan Walker said Monday. She said she didn’t know when the boy, who was gouged by the beast on the back of the head and on the arms and legs, would be released from the hospital.

As a result of the attack, Justin received “more than 100 stitches all over his body except for his little face, which we’re thankful for,” Donna J. Carpenter, the boy’s grandmother, said in a hospital interview Monday night. “He’s doing fine. He’s a little fighter.”

Carpenter said the boy will probably not need any surgery in the future and could return to first grade within as little as two weeks.

Timothy Mellon, 28, the boy’s father, said he only saw one sign in the park where Justin was mauled and was shocked to find lions so close to areas frequented by humans. “The sign said: ‘Respect the wild life and the wild flowers,’ ” Carpenter, a Norco resident, recounted. “That’s it. Besides, you don’t take children on a picnic and expect a mountain lion to come out.”

Dogs Comb Area

As Justin rested, state officials conducted a long but unsuccessful search for the mountain lion that attacked him.

Beginning at 6:30 a.m. Monday, officials and dogs began combing the closed park, searching for the cougar. They found mountain lion tracks but came across no fresh scent and reported no new sightings. The party of five trackers included a state Department of Fish and Game warden, two park rangers and two hired trappers from San Bernardino and their dogs, eight English Walker hounds, trained to tree mountain lions. One of the trappers, Joel Shows, owned the dogs which captured the lion suspected in the March 23 attack on Laura Small.

Six more dogs were reported en route from Sacramento.

Authorities were working Monday with the knowledge that another mountain lion sighting had taken place Saturday. About 24 hours before Sunday’s attack, Doug Schulthess, his wife and two children were hiking along the same nature trail when they spotted a mountain lion watching them from the brush about 15 feet away.

Schulthess said he was taking a picture of his wife and one of his daughters, when, alerted by his wife’s scream, “I saw the mountain lion watching them. I said, ‘Walk slowly to me.’ The mountain lion just watched.”

Filed Written Report

The family was able to leave the area safely, and before hastily leaving the park, Schulthess said, he and his wife filed a written report with park rangers. “The ranger didn’t say much, but he seemed concerned that a mountain lion had come so close to people,” Schulthess recalled Monday.

Timothy Miller, manager of park and recreation operations for Orange County’s regional parks, said that a meeting of state and county wildlife officials would be held in the next few days to decide what action to take.

Miller said that the options include closing the park permanently, which, he said, would represent “a phenomenal loss of a natural environment enjoyed by thousands of people every year.”

Another alternative, he said, would be to reopen the park and simply warn people to be aware of such hazards as “rattlesnakes, poison oak and mountain lions.”

Miller emphasized that in any state or national wilderness area, the only responsibility the county has is to warn people. “The bottom line is to take care of your children,” he said, adding that warning signs have been posted at all trail heads, restrooms and the main gate.

The suggestion of a “preventive hunt” came from Brian J. Kahn, president of the state Fish and Game Commission. Kahn said he favors such a hunt if the lion involved in Sunday’s attack isn’t killed or captured and if a quickly done study would support such a move.

‘Damn Quick Decision’

“If the hot pursuit fails, there ought to be a damn quick decision made,” Kahn said.

Kahn emphasized that such a hunt would be based on unusual local circumstances. He and other experts warned of an “emotional reaction” against a 15-year state ban on sport hunting of lions.

Kahn said such a decision could be made before his group next spring once again takes up the controversial question of allowing sport hunting of lions.

Kahn said said he favored limited sport hunting of lions in areas where they presented a clear danger to livestock. On Monday, Kahn spoke of the potential dangers of the encroachment of urban developments on natural lion habitat.

“We may be getting into a situation where we’re getting enough lions in frequently inhabited areas,” Kahn said. “It is possible under some circumstances some lions may be losing their historic fear (of humans).”

The commission’s decision in April to ban sport hunting was “political,” said Kahn, who said he was speaking as an individual. The cat is a “symbolic wilderness animal,” he said, adding that his fellow members did not want to open hunting season on the lions in 1986, an election year.

Meeting Concerning Problem

Preventive hunts--in which the lion population is reduced by professionals--have been undertaken in the past in sharply limited locales, Kahn said.

In another development Monday, a National Audubon Society official revealed that shortly before Laura Small was badly mauled by a mountain lion in the same area of Caspers Park last March 23, a meeting involving county and state game and park officials was scheduled to consider the problem of big cats in the area.

The discussion--which never took place--was intended “to determine a protocol for dealing with the potential problem of lions in the area,” said Jeff Froke, Audubon Society area sanctuaries manager in the Western United States and manager of the Starr Ranch Sanctuary for wildlife adjacent to Caspers park. The park is located east of San Juan Capistrano.

Froke, along with county parks and state Fish and Game officials, are defendants in a $28-million lawsuit filed after the March attack. Donald and Susan Small claim that officials knew before the attack that the cats posed a danger to hikers.

Their suit said that park officials were so concerned about increased sightings that the evening before the Small attack they warned individual park-goers and offered instructions on what to do if confronted by a lion. County employees contacted last week on the allegations referred inquiries to Maria L. Bastanchury, who heads the county’s risk management section of the county administrative office. Bastanchury declined comment, citing the litigation.

Declined Comment

In an interview last week, Froke described the purpose of the meeting and confirmed that it did not take place but declined further comment. National Audubon Society President Peter Berle said he did not believe the conservation group was responsible in any way for the lion attacks and declined further comment.

For Richard J. Staskus, the San Jose lawyer who filed the lawsuit, the attack Sunday on Justin Mellon was a tragic confirmation of the Smalls’ concerns.

“I don’t know how to express it,” Staskus said Monday. “We warned them over and over again.” Staskus said the incident Sunday shows “a conscious disregard of public safety by each of those employees in the park.”

The March attack left Laura’s right arm and leg paralyzed, damaged her right eye and caused 50 severe cuts to her head and face. The cat crushed the left side of her skull, sending shards of bone into her brain and causing the paralysis and a difficulty in speaking.

The wilderness park was closed for one month after that attack. When it reopened, park officials had posted signs alerting visitors to the presence of mountain lions.

The California Legislature first voted a moratorium on the hunting of mountain lions in 1971. The ban was renewed in 1975 and 1983 and technically expired last January, although the state Fish and Game Commission has yet to set an open hunting season for mountain lions.

Fish and Game Department spokeswoman Peggy Blair said several studies of cat populations are now under way. The commission will consider the lion situation as part of its “regular process of considering restrictions on all mammals” early next year, Blair said.

Times staff writers Gordon Grant, Bill Billiter and Maria L. La Ganga, in Orange County, and Kenneth F. Bunting, in Sacramento, contributed to this report.

A hiker’s photo in Caspers Park showed his wife, child--and a cougar. Part II, Page 1.