A California mother is being hailed as a hero by state officials after she fought off a mountain lion that attacked her five-year-old son using only her bare hands.
The cougar that attacked the boy and dragged the child across his front lawn near Calabasas, Calif. was shot and killed by a wildlife officer, authorities said Saturday.
The 65-pound mountain lion attacked the boy while he was playing near his house Thursday and “dragged him about 45 yards” across the front lawn, said Capt. Patrick Foy, a spokesman with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told the Associated Press.
The parents immediately drove the boy to the hospital. CBS Los Angeles reported the boy was injured in his head, neck, upper torso and was recovering at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. The boy was reported to be in stable condition.
“The true hero of this story is his mom because she absolutely saved her son’s life,” Foy said. The mother was inside the house when she heard a commotion outside.
“She ran out of the house and started punching and striking the mountain lion with her bare hands and got him off her son,” he said.
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Law enforcement officials were notified of the attack and a wildlife officer was dispatched to the house to investigate.
Once at the scene, the officer discovered a mountain lion crouching in the bushes with its “ears back and hissing” at him, Foy said.
“Due to its behavior and proximity to the attack, the warden believed it was likely the attacking lion and to protect public safety shot and killed it on site,” the wildlife department said in a statement Saturday.
Subsequent DNA tests confirmed that the lion was the one responsible for attacking the child, the statement said.
Another mountain lion spotted in the area was tranquilized and then released into the wild unharmed after being tested to be sure it was not involved in the attack.
Experts told CBS Los Angeles the attack likely happened because the boy is small and a young mountain lion was still learning how to hunt and fend for themselves.
A mountain lion has not attacked a human in the Santa Monica mountains in more than 20 years, the television station reported.
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