The Region - News from April 13, 1986

A hunter shot to death a 143-pound mountain lion believed to have killed three dogs--including an 80-pound pit bull-German shepherd mix that had been leashed to a landing up two flights of stairs--near the San Bernardino National Forest. Last month, 5-year-old Laura Michele Small was injured by another lion in a park in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County. She is the first person known to have been attacked by a mountain lion in California since 1909. Nevertheless, wildlife officials have decided to keep mountain lions off limits to hunters for another year. Now about 5,000 of the cats roam the state compared to 2,400 in 1972, when their declining population prompted officials to declare a moratorium on hunting the animals.