Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : AT THE SCENE : Caspers Park Remains Closed as Officials Study Cougar Problem

The second mauling of a child by a mountain lion at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park within seven months triggered a massive hunt for the big cat that came up empty-handed.

In the meantime, the 7,500-acre county park east of San Juan Capistrano was ordered closed for 60 days while options were studied.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to consider Wednesday recommendations by representatives of the county’s parks and recreation division, Animal Control and the state Department of Fish and Game to make the park safer for visitors.

It was just before noon on Sunday when Justin Mellon of Huntington Beach was attacked by the 150-pound lion as he and nine other children and their parents hiked up a trail near a campground in the popular wooded park off the Ortega Highway.

As the cat tried to drag the 6-year-old boy into the brush, Timothy Mellon, who was armed with a hunting knife, charged the animal, which released its hold on his son’s head. The boy was carried back to the campground and then airlifted to a hospital.

With Justin undergoing four days of treatment for numerous claw and tooth wounds to his head, chest and back, two teams of professional hunters and tracking dogs were brought in to search for the mountain lion. Finally, on Wednesday the search was called off when “the trails simply went cold and the dogs seemed” to lose interest, according to a county parks official.

It was not known whether the cat that attacked Justin was the same one that approached, but did not attack, a Cypress family the day before. That cat’s presence was captured on film when the father took a picture of his wife and their 2-year-old daughter.

The attack on Justin followed by seven months the mauling of 5-year-old Laura Michele Small of El Toro as she walked with her parents along a stream in the park.

The cat crushed Laura’s skull, sending shards of bone into her brain and paralyzing her right arm and leg. Her face and head were cut, and her right eye was damaged.

The attacks and other mountain lion sightings over the summer have led to calls for eradication of the cats and renewed criticism that governmental agencies failed to adequately warn the public about the danger in the park.

Late this week, after the news of Justin Mellon’s mauling, a Silverado Canyon couple claimed they saw a mountain lion while riding horses in Irvine Regional Park one night earlier this month. Lisa Pederson and her husband, Jeff, said they told a park ranger about spotting the cat on Oct. 8 but that the ranger failed to make a written report.

The supervising park ranger, Mark Carlson, said the Pedersons’ account would be investigated.

Wildlife experts warned, however, that there are no easy solutions to problems caused by the mountain lions who reside on the fringes of a rapidly urbanizing area. Although it may be time to allow a limited hunt of cougars in south Orange County, according to the president of the state Fish and Game Commission, the idea that killing some cougars would prevent attacks is nonsense.