Jackson Bell
For the past 10 years, Mary Anne Anderson has been feeding feral cats
living near the Grayson Power Plant.
But with the recent sighting of a mountain lion in the area, city
officials are taking every precaution to protect employees and nearby
residents -- including no longer letting Anderson leave food for the
cats and other wildlife it attracts.
But she argues that starving the cats, who have relied on the food
for years, will probably not get rid of the mountain lion. In fact,
it might further endanger the public.
"If you remove the cats and food as the so-called source, where do
you think the mountain lion will go?" the Glendale resident asked.
"It will get really hungry and really aggressive and might cross over
into the residential area."
But city officials believe cutting off the cat's food supply --
which also feeds wild skunks, opossums and raccoons -- is a necessary
defense against mountain lions.
The city has also raised the height of the fence, put in concrete
so the lion cannot dig holes, and removed all shrubs to reduce the
number of hiding places, Park Ranger Supervisor Russ Hauck said.
"This is a real threat to the workers because the mountain lion is
walking literally within feet of where the guys are checking the
gauges in the middle of the night, the time when [the lion] is most
active," Hauck said.
City officials consulted with several wildlife agencies --
including the Pasadena Humane Society and the state's Department of
Fish and Game -- and learned that while it is impossible to determine
why the lion is coming to the plant, it could be attracted to the
wildlife Anderson is feeding, said Elaine Aguilar, assistant to the
city manager.
Aguilar has been working with the wildlife agency DELTA Rescue to
capture and move the feral cats to its 94-acre ranch outside of Santa
Clarita. The organization will have this weekend to try to remove as
many cats as possible, then Aguilar will meet with them Monday
morning to figure out what further action should be taken.
"The feeding cannot continue indefinitely," she said. "It has to
come to an end because we're dealing with a mountain lion ... we need
to make public safety our paramount concern and not underestimate the
hazard it poses."
Elizabeth Kollar, spokeswoman for the rescue agency, believes it
will take about a month to lure the roughly 50 feral cats between the
two colonies into traps so they can be removed.
"If the city of Glendale allows us to continue to feed the cats in
the area where they have been fed, it will help us rescue them
faster," Kollar said. "If we have to stop feeding, it will be a
problem because the population will get loose and we will be unable
to rescue them."
