BILLINGS – Wildlife agents trapped and killed a mountain lion near Red Lodge on Thursday after it went after a small dog being walked by a woman in a rural subdivision.
The 7-foot-long cat apparently had not eaten for some time because of a bad leg injury that would have prevented it from hunting, said Robert Gibson with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
“It appears the lion was definitely after the little dog,” he said. “That would make sense — it was trying to get lunch.”
The woman had just left her house when the mountain lion ran toward her and began acting aggressively toward the dog, which was on a leash, Gibson said.
The predator fled after the woman called for her husband and he chased the animal away. But it continued to hang around the house, prompting wildlife officials to trap and euthanize it.
The animal was “very skinny and in bad shape,” with a foot-long gash on one of its front legs that was infected and swollen, Gibson said.
Mountain lions normally avoid people and prefer to eat deer, but they can become aggressive when they are hungry or unable to hunt.