Fish and Game euthanizes mountain lion found on Idaho man’s porch
A male mountain lion thought to be the same cat seen in downtown Kimberly on Thursday was euthanized Friday outside of town after another run-in with humans.
On Friday, a homeowner east of Kimberly notified the Idaho Department of Fish and Game that he found a mountain lion early that morning on his porch, Fish and Game spokesman Terry Thompson said in a statement.
“Before the officers’ arrival, the homeowner made repeated unsuccessful attempts to haze the mountain lion away from the house,” Thompson said. “The homeowner reported that the lion showed no fear despite him yelling repeatedly at the lion, and at one point the lion hissed and took an aggressive posture toward the homeowner.”
Regional Conservation Officer Josh Royse told Thompson he expected to scare the lion toward the South Hills but the big cat did not attempt to run away when approached.
“In the interest of public safety for local residents, the decision was made to euthanize the lion,” Royse said.
Officials said it’s likely the same mountain lion a Kimberly woman filmed early Thursday morning in a video that’s been shared dozens of times on Facebook. At 6:45 a.m. Thursday, Liz Stanger came home to find the cat at her door.
“I was coming home and he was sitting on my front step. My first thought was that it was a huge dog,” Stanger told the Times-News. “Then he moved and I thought, ‘That’s not a dog.’”
She knew she had to photograph the big cat because no one would ever believe her story, she said.
“I was a bit shook up,” Stanger said. “I’m just happy that my daughter, who was getting ready to go to work, didn’t leave before I had come home, because she would have walked right out the door and into him.”
Stanger lives off an alley between Monroe and Madison streets, just a half-block west of Main Street North near the post office.
She pulled into her driveway, hoping to scare the cat away. Cornered between the home and a chainlink fence, the cat charged the fence several times trying to escape before darting off.
Police Chief Jeff Perry said the city of Kimberly received numerous calls from people who had seen Stanger’s video on Facebook. Perry said his officers and the Fish and Game were unable to locate the cat Thursday.
It’s the latest in a series of confrontations with mountain lions in the Wood River Valley over the last six months. Since December, several mountain lions have been euthanized by Fish and Game after attacking and killing pets, while others have been successfully hazed away from homes.
In January, Mike McDonald, regional wildlife manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s Magic Valley Region, told the Idaho Statesman there’s been a spike in the number of reported encounters with mountain lions over the last several months.
Idaho Statesman reporter Nicole Blanchard contributed.
