Lion snatches dog from steps

| Saturday, June 05, 2004

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Pooch survives, but the attack adds a nervous edge to country living.

By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer

SILVER CITY -- Tonia Le Febre's 4-year-old schnauzer, Lily, survived the jaws of a mountain lion this week.

But life in the country will never be quite the same for Lily or Le Febre.

Le Febre and her two sons, 12-year-old Daniel and 9-year-old Donnie, saved their 10-pound pooch from a mountain lion attack early Tuesday at their home in the woods south of Silver City.

About five minutes after Le Febre let Lily outside, the dog started howling.

"She was just screaming. By the time I got to the side door, the kids had opened it and found a lion out there, about three feet away," LeFebre said.

The lion's jaws were around the dog's head.

"When they opened the door, the lion dropped Lily," Le Febre said. "She was injured and a little crazy, running around in circles. It took a few seconds to get her in. The lion just stood there about three or four feet away and looked at us. She stared at us for about 30 seconds, then took off."

Inside the house, Le Febre tended to the dog, which had two puncture wounds in its head, including one in the eye socket. With veterinary care, she survived, although it is not clear whether the dog will lose vision in the injured eye.

And now, Le Febre wonders if her sons themselves or people who come for recreation in the area could be in danger from a lion that seemed to have no fear of humans.

"I worry about it. I have children who play in my yard. They're adventurous. They could be out playing, bending over to pick up a rock or anything," Le Febre said Friday. "Who knows what could happen."

Le Febre contacted the Journal about the incident after reading reports of a mountain lion that attacked several cats in a basement crawl space Monday night under a home near Spearfish. State Game, Fish & Parks Department officials have declared that lion to be a public threat and decided to track and kill if it shows itself again.

It was almost certainly a different cat that attacked Le Febre's dog Tuesday morning. Le Febre is disturbed by what appears to be increasing examples of aggressive behavior by mountain lions in the Black Hills.

Le Febre reported the attack to state GF&P officers in Rapid City. She said they weren't prepared to add the cat to the "remove" list.

"I was told by Game, Fish & Parks that we're not allowed to shoot it," she said of the lion. "But I'm concerned about my kids. And I'm concerned about people using the four-by-four trail up here. They could go in there and not realize they're in lion country, and it could be fatal."

GF&P regional game specialist John Wrede of Rapid City said he understood Le Febre's concern. But an attack on a dog doesn't necessarily mean a lion is likely to attack a human, Wrede said.

Before deciding to kill a lion, GF&P must first verify that it is indeed a lion that was involved in an attack, then find evidence of a dangerous pattern, Wrede said. If the lion were to return and attack the dog again or clearly threatened human beings, GF&P might decide to take it. And Wrede said the law that protects lions also allows members of the public to protect themselves from an imminent threat from lions.

So could Le Febre shoot the lion?

"If the same behavior reoccurred on her deck and she took the ultimate step and killed the lion, I don't think we would argue with that," Wrede said.

But that should be a last step, taken only in an attack or with a clear threat of an attack to people, pets or domestic animals, Wrede said. And people who live in the forest, or in housing developments near towns, should remember that they are in lion habitat and take precautions.

Those include teaching how to be vigilant about their pets and, especially, teaching their children about lion behavior and how to reduce the already low risk of attack. But if those techniques fail, citizens have the right to protect themselves from serious threats from lions, GF&P assistant wildlife director Emmett Keyser of Pierre said.

"We don't want people to think they have to be in the clutches of the lion before they can take action," Keyser said. "But there's a tremendous amount of gray area in what constitutes a threat. Some people would feel they're in jeopardy when a lion shows up on the property. But that's not good enough."

Mountain lions are classified as game animals in South Dakota, although GF&P doesn't set a hunting season on them. Killing one without cause could be a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

GF&P officials have been discussing the possibility of a limited lion hunting season, as some other states already have, as a way to control lion numbers and possibly reduce encounters with people and domestic animals. But the value of lion seasons in that regard is open to debate. Critics argue that random killing in hunting seasons can actually cause more problems by eliminating male lions that have established territories and haven't killed domestic livestock or threatened people.

Keyser said GF&P will take individual lions when they prove themselves to be a threat. Le Febre believes that is what the lion in her area has done. And she wonders if it is the same animal that attacked and killed a deer that had come to drink at a pond a few yards from Le Febre's house two years ago.

"It took the doe by the throat and dragged it across the road and finished it off," she said. After the incident on Tuesday, Le Febre's neighbors reported they were missing a Rotweiller and Labrador retriever.

"They're both gone," she said. "What do you think happened?"

Le Febre believes she knows the answer, which doesn't make life in the country any more peaceful.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com