Celebrity Mountain Lion P-22 Euthanized

The mountain lion known as P-22, who lived in highly urban Griffith Park for more than a decade, was “compassionately euthanized” Saturday morning because of the serious injuries he suffered earlier this week and his generally poor condition, according to the California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife’s director,.

P-22 was thought to be about 12 years old.

The National Park Service and the state’s wildlife department captured the mountain lion this week. The lion had begun roaming further and further outside his Griffith Park domain, wandering into densely populated residential areas. He recently attacked and killed a chihuahua and attempted to grab another small dog. Those attacks prompted officials to capture him for an examination.

He was captured in the backyard of a Los Feliz home near several schools, including John Marshall High School.

Experts said the cat was exhibiting what was termed “signs of distress” in the last month, and apparently was hit by a car and suffered an eye injury. Upon examination after his capture, he was said to be extremely underweight and suffering from a skin condition.

The mountain lion was not healthy enough to be released back to Griffith Park, state wildlife officials said. There had been some hopes of a retirement to a nature preserve, but those were dashed by his long list of medical problems that made his long-term survival problematic.

P-22 was first spotted in Griffith Park 2013. The park is in the middle of urban Los Angeles, but its mountains were home to P-22, who could feast on mule deer and other small creatures while sticking to the high country. He was believed to have been born in the Santa Monica mountains, and had to cross two highly trafficked highways to get to Griffith Park. Once there, though, he was stuck, and his mating calls went unanswered.

While P-22 was considered a wild animal, his celebrity status was unquestioned, and neighbors of the area reported his frequent sightings in populated neighborhoods with something akin to glee. A National Geographic photo spread, led to a 2017 documentary, The Cat That Changed America, a museum exhibit, a children’s coloring book, and a mural in Watts, an area even further south in Los Angeles.

Eulogy for P-22, A Mountain Lion Who Changed the World

Beth Pratt, a National Wildlife Federation spokesperson, described P-22’s final moments in an online post.

“I sat near him, looking into his eyes for a few minutes, and told him he was a good boy. I told him how much I loved him. How much the world loved him. And I told him I was so sorry that we did not make the world a safer place for him. I apologized that despite all I and others who cared for him did, we failed him.

I don’t have any illusion that my presence or words comforted him. And I left with a great sadness I will carry for the rest of my days.”

Team members from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the team of doctors at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park reviewed P-22’s exams before reaching their decision, Pratt said.

“They showed me a video of P-22’s CT scan, images of the results, and my despair grew as they outlined the list of serious health issues they had uncovered from all their testing: stage two kidney failure, a weight of 90 pounds!!! (he normally weighs about 125), head and eye trauma, a hernia causing abdominal organs to fill his chest cavity, an extensive case of demodex gatoi (a parasitic skin infection likely transmitted from domestic cats), heart disease, and more. The most severe injuries resulted from him being hit by a car last week, and I thought of how terrible it was that this cat, who had managed to evade cars for a decade, in his weakened and desperate condition could not avoid the vehicle strike that sealed his fate.”