After California mountain lion killed, this man made an offer: 'Money for the lion's life'

Joe Edmiston called it a simple offer – a business transaction that could potentially save a mountain lion and a property owner’s bottom line.

After a Santa Monica Mountains cougar was killed recently under state depredation law, elected officials and others took to social media and wrote letters calling for more protections for the large cats.

Edmiston, longtime executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, offered to pull out his wallet.

If a property owner in the Santa Monicas in Ventura and Los Angeles counties loses animals to a mountain lion, he wants them to come to him instead of requesting a permit to kill the cougar. He offered to reimburse their losses.

What's ahead? California mountain lions move step closer to protection

“This has nothing to do with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. This has nothing to do with the state of California,” Edmiston said this week. “This is just Joe Edmiston saying, ’If you’ve got a problem, I’m happy to pay you so you don’t kill the lion.’”

“It’s just so simple,” he said. “Money for the lion’s life.”

Hunting mountain lions is illegal in the state, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife issues depredation permits when a cougar kills or injures domestic animals. 

The mountain lion, dubbed P-56 as part of a longterm National Park Service study, was killed Jan. 27. The night before he had killed sheep on a property near Camarillo, one of nine incidents on the property in two years.

Authorities believe the 4- or 5-year-old male mountain lion was responsible for a majority of those incidents. In all, a dozen sheep were killed.

P-56 was the first radio-collared mountain lion killed under the state depredation law here. Since 2002, the National Park Service has studied Santa Monica Mountains cougars to determine how they survive in the increasingly urban area. 

The small, isolated population faces threats from low genetic diversity, as well as from rodenticide poisoning and getting hit by vehicles on the roads.

The loss of a breeding male was of particular concern, park biologists said of P-56. That’s because the local population is known to have just one or two breeding adult males at any one time.

Big cats:California wildlife officials say no mountain lions killed under three-strikes rule

“Unfortunately, we can’t control road kills. We can’t control rodenticides,” Edmiston said Thursday. “The one thing we can control is a Fish and Game warden scratching out a depredation permit.”

Earlier in the week, Edmiston’s offer and email address – jtedmiston@gmail.com – was included in a Los Angeles Times story.

Since, he said he has gotten “so many hundreds” of emails. Many offered support or a pat on the back, some offered help with costs, and so far, none had taken him up on his offer.

“I sure hope they do,” he said.

Because of the threats to populations in the Santa Monicas, the state put in place a three-strike policy for depredation permits in late 2017.

In the designated areas, property owners first have to try nonlethal means to keep the cougars away. If the same mountain lion returned three times and killed animals, then a property owner could be granted a lethal permit.

In the case of P-56, the incidents happened outside the boundaries of the three-strike area even though it was still in the Santa Monica Mountains.

If it had happened inside the boundary, however, the outcome likely would have been the same, state officials said.

The agency reported the property owner did try several nonlethal methods to keep the mountain lion away, including keeping as many livestock as possible in an enclosed structure at night, penning any remaining livestock close to the barn and houses, and using trained guard dogs.

Earlier:Mountain lion killed near Camarillo after state issues permit

After the lion was killed, Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks said this week she would like to the see the three-strike area broadened.

She also said she would support strengthening protections for the local cougars so depredation permits would not be issued after livestock losses in the Santa Monicas.

“It’s essential that we protect them,” she said, “or we lose them.”

Cheri Carlson covers the environment for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0260.

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