Cougar Is Hunted in Foothills : Wildlife: Deputies search for mountain lion believed to have killed two dogs in the La Crescenta, Tujunga areas.

Sheriff’s deputies and state officials hunted big game in the foothills near La Crescenta on Monday--a mountain lion they say has killed two dogs and come within 10 feet of humans over the past week.

The most recent encounter was at 1 a.m. Monday, when Chul Yoon was awakened by the barking of his Akita in the 2800 block of Pinelawn Drive, said Sgt. Michael Allen of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

When Yoon looked out his window, he saw a mountain lion grab the 80-pound dog by the neck and drag it over a four-foot stone wall that separates Yoon’s back yard from the hillside beyond, Allen said.

Sheriff’s deputies alerted officials of the state Department of Fish and Game, and the hunt was on. Sheriff’s patrols have been beefed up in the area, and Fish and Game workers are prowling through the foothills, trying to track the big cat.

Officials believe that this cougar is the one that grabbed a dog from the back yard of a house in Blanchard Canyon in the Tujunga area, a few miles west of Yoon’s house, the night of March 7. When that dog’s owner was awakened by its howls, he dashed out onto the back porch and stared at the mountain lion, standing just 10 feet away, said Patrick Moore, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game. The cougar fled, but when the man went inside to get a gun, the animal apparently returned and dragged the injured dog away.

Several other residents have also reported seeing the big cats in the Crescenta Valley over the last week, officials said.

“Sightings are not that unusual anymore,” Moore said. But these two incidents “indicate that there is a mountain lion up there that’s found an easy way to find a meal. It’s easier to snatch a dog than spend all that time fighting over deer.”

Moore said the mountain lion population has been growing since state-supported bounty hunting of the animals was discontinued in the 1960s. In the last few years, numerous residents have seen mountain lions in the foothills, as the cougars overrun their habitat and suburban developments encroach upon it.

The hunters have orders to shoot to kill, Moore said. “It’s just coming too close to human beings for comfort,” he said. “The fear is that it’s only a matter of time before a human being is involved.”