Mountain Lion Attack Worries Residents : Mauling: A pet was killed in San Clemente last week, and a homeowners’ association says it has received 10 to 15 reports of cougar sightings near homes.

An eyewitness report of a cat killed last Saturday by a mountain lion in a canyon-studded subdivision here is making some homeowners fear for the safety of their pets and children.

The mauling, which city police believe is the first killing of a domestic animal by a mountain lion here, occurred within the Coast, an upscale community of 570 homes in the northern part of the city, east of Interstate 5.

Lou Gundlach, administrator of the community’s homeowners’ association, said the association has received reports of 10 to 15 mountain lion sightings near homes. In at least one instance, a mountain lion was said to have been sunning itself in a back yard.

In response, Gundlach said, the homeowners’ association has reported its concerns to city animal control officers and alerted residents through newsletters and by posting warning signs on a concrete trail that meanders through the community’s greenbelts.

Gundlach said residents fear a repeat of the mauling of Laura Small, the 5-year-old girl who was severely injured by a mountain lion in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park more than six years ago.

One community resident, Laura Wendel, said she and her sister were entertaining some friends at their home on Calle Sorpreso about 1 a.m. Saturday morning when a neighbor knocked on her door to say she had seen a mountain lion with Wendel’s 6-month-old Persian cat, Coco, in its mouth.

Wendel said the neighbor, Mary Stephens, told them she had heard cat screams and had walked into her front yard expecting to see her own pet cats in a fray. Instead, she startled the mountain lion, which dropped Wendel’s crushed cat before running off.

“It was devastating,” Wendel said. “That cat was like my child.” Stephens was unavailable for comment. Pat Kroeger, who also lives in the subdivision, said she has seen two mountain lions, an adult and a juvenile, in her yard at different times. The last time, she said, was Sunday, at about 4:30 p.m., when the younger mountain lion ran through her back yard in pursuit of a rabbit.

Kroeger said she was fixing dinner and saw the cat through her kitchen window. So did her dog, which barked from inside, scaring the cat away. But before it left, she said, “it turned toward us and showed its teeth.”

Gundlach and Kroeger said their main concern is that a child might be attacked by the wild cats. “We want them to be found and gotten out of here,” he said.

City Fire Battalion Chief Gene Begnell, who is also San Clemente’s animal control officer, said game animals like mountain lions fall under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Fish and Game.

Fish and Game officials said mountain lion sightings have become increasingly common throughout Southern California as new communities encroach on the cats’ home range.

However, state wildlife experts all said they are skeptical about sightings because people often mistake bobcats, coyotes and even golden retrievers for mountain lions.

Rolf Mall, deputy regional manager for the Department of Fish and Game, said the agency’s policy is to leave mountain lions alone if they are simply moving within sight of humans. But he said a mountain lion that begins eating pets can be considered a danger and may be destroyed--but only if the owner of the pet files a complaint with the agency.

Because 17 cities ring the Santa Ana Mountains, the habitat for 20 adult mountain lions and their 15 to 20 cubs, state wildlife experts say there is no place to relocate a problem cat without endangering another community.

Though she was angered by the loss of her pet, Wendel said she does not want to see the mountain lion killed. “I don’t want to go that far,” she said, “unless something like this happens again.”

Begnell said he plans to launch a campaign next week to teach the public how to coexist safely with mountain lions. The effort will be modeled after a similar campaign the city undertook earlier in the year to combat coyote attacks.