Mountain lion shot hours before Obama arrives in El Paso
By COLIN McDONALD
San Antonio Express-News
May 10, 2011, 3:12PM
A 125-pound mountain lion was shot in El Paso hours before President Barack Obama arrived to deliver a speech.
According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the female cat was seen near downtown at 8:30 a.m. by Union Pacific employees, who contacted the city's animal control unit.
The cat was next seen entering the parking garage of a state building where TPWD game wardens happened to have their offices.
With the animal cornered in the garage, a Texas Department of Health veterinarian shot it with a tranquilizer dart, according to a spokesman for TPWD. Unfazed, the cat then leaped from the second story of the parking garage and headed north toward the heart of downtown. At this time, multiple agencies were chasing the animal.
It crossed a school yard and ran half a mile north to the H&H Carwash. Officers evacuated the customers and lowered the business' vehicle security gate to trap the mountain lion inside.
The animal then settled down and was shot with a second tranquilizer dart.
But again that injection did not work, and the cat found a space it could get through.
As it was attempting to escape again, two officers, one from the El Paso Police Department and the other from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, shot and killed the animal shortly before 10:30 a.m.
The carcass will go to the animal control for a necropsy.
According to TPWD, mountain lions are not uncommon in El Paso because the area is surrounded by open land on both side of the border.
The incident did not change Obama's schedule, and he arrived at 12:42 p.m.
