SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A California police department is upset with a Bay Area zoo over the latter's description of how a mountain lion, which authorities shot, died during emergency surgery last week.
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The Hollister Police Department slammed the Oakland Zoo in a statement last week, criticizing zoo officials for how they characterized the shooting.
The big cat was spotted at a residential neighborhood in Hollister early Friday morning, according to releases from police and the zoo.
After repeated attempts by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to tranquilize him with darts, Hollister police officers shot the male mountain lion. He then jumped over a neighboring fence, where wildlife officials were able to successfully tranquilize him.
The animal was transported to the Oakland Zoo for emergency surgery, during which he died from his injuries. Zoo officials said the animal was "another victim of human-wildlife conflict" and called the mountain lion's death a "tragic loss."
On Saturday, the Hollister Police Department released a new statement heavily criticizing the Oakland Zoo's characterization of what transpired.
Hollister police said "their choice of words is careless at best, and misleading at worst. It characterizes our actions as having been reckless and impatient and none of that is true."
While authorities did not mention which part of the zoo's statement they were specifically referring to, it appears they mainly objected to zoo officials writing that "while trying to safely capture (the mountain lion), he was shot by local PD while CDFW was attempting to dart him with a tranquilizer."
"Our officers exhibited patience, care, and concern for the mountain lion and public, and followed the lead of the outstanding officers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife yesterday," police said. "We operated and acted thoughtfully in the best interests of every living being, both animal and human. Everyone at the scene acted admirably."
The department argued in their original release that the lion charged towards one of the officers, which prompted two other officers to fire at the lion because they “feared for the life and safety” of the officer.
The agency called for the Oakland Zoo to "retract, correct, or amend" their original post, which remains up on Facebook.
A zoo spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle in a statement that the post "stated the facts as reported to us by our partners at CDFW. Hollister PD was not named by us, nor judged by us, and we understand HPD has since issued multiple statements around why shots were fired by their officers based on their account – and we respect that."
"As a zoo focused on wildlife conservation and education, our message and focus in sharing news of this tragedy was to educate the public about the growing issues around human-wildlife conflict, and nothing more," the spokesperson added.
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