EL TORO : Lions Maul Three Families’ Pet Rabbits

Three families in a densely wooded area were on the lookout for mountain lions this weekend after they woke up Saturday morning to find their pet rabbits mauled and large paw prints on their lawns.

A representative of the Orange County Animal Shelter told the concerned families that the sets of tracks on their lawns belong to a mountain lion and her cub, the families said Sunday.

“He told us the lion was probably training her cub how to kill for food,” said Donna Boggess, 39, a resident of Charwood Circle in a subdivision known as the Forest.

Boggess and two neighbors, who also found remnants of the cougars’ early-morning visit in their yards, said the shelter initially dismissed their concerns, saying that the culprits that left behind at least three bloody rabbit carcasses were probably raccoons.

But “as soon as (a representative from the shelter) saw the tracks, he changed his tune quickly,” Boggess said.

A county animal-control officer reached Sunday said he had no information on the report.

Boggess said she first heard scratching noises and “a loud thump” at 2 a.m. Saturday. After sunrise, she and her two teen-age daughters found their rabbit cage toppled over, its wooden frame partially gnawed off and its screen ripped. One rabbit had disappeared and another was found dead, its neck covered with teeth marks, in a neighbor’s back yard.

Across the the street, Alana Kuntz, 20, went to feed her two rabbits that morning and found one’s bloodied body on her deck. The carcass of the other rabbit was found in a neighbor’s back yard.

“It bothers and scares me that (mountain lions) were actually here on this deck,” Kuntz said. “It doesn’t help that I’ve heard about Laura Small’s attack.”

In 1986, Laura Small, an El Toro girl who was then 5, was mauled by a mountain lion at Caspers Regional Park. Her face was badly scarred and her right side was left partially paralyzed.

Another resident, Randy Andrus, 38, said that when he discovered a paw mark the size of an adult’s hand in his back yard Saturday morning, his first concern was for the safety of his 6-year-old daughter, Rochelle.

However, Andrus said Rochelle’s concern was more for her dead pet rabbit.

Except for Saturday’s incident, neighbors and authorities said no other cougar sightings have been reported in the immediate area in the past few years.

Last month, however, animal-control officers captured a mountain lion that had wandered into the back yard of an Irvine home. No one was injured.