Over Labor Day weekend in a California state park, a 5-year-old boy was hospitalized after being assaulted by a mountain lion.
According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the incident happened on Sunday afternoon while a Woodland Hills family was enjoying a picnic at Malibu State Creek Park in the Santa Monica foothills of Southern California. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office claimed that the group was in the park’s Tapia Day Use section.
A mountain lion attacked a five-year-old boy when the kids were playing close to the family’s picnic table, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The youngster was set free after “one or more adults charged at the lion,” according to officials. “Significant but non-life-threatening injuries” were sustained by the kid.
Early on Monday, the kid who had been transported to Northridge Hospital Medical Center was released.
Witnesses saw the lion ascend a neighboring tree following the incident, and it stayed there until rangers from California State Parks came.
The mountain lion was put to death by a ranger using a pistol after rangers and CDFW wildlife officers conferred and it was found to be a “threat to public safety.”
According to the CDFW, wildlife agents got in touch with the victim’s relatives at the hospital in order to “collect samples of the evidence from the victim’s clothing and bite and scratch wounds.” The Wildlife Forensic Lab of CDFW in Sacramento verified the DNA match between those samples.
California State Parks is in charge of an investigation.
The child was five years old, according to the CDFW, however, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office had stated in an original announcement that the child was four.
“Officials from CDFW and State Parks are appreciative that the family is secure, the child is on the mend, and nobody else was hurt,” CDFW said.