P-22 Puma captured in Los Angeles garden, resident says

Griffith Park’s famous puma and most wanted feline P-22 was captured Monday morning in a backyard in Los Feliz, the owner told The Times.

Resident Sarah Picchi said the lion was captured near Franklin Avenue and St. George Street in the Franklin Hills area.

P-22 had been sought for evaluation by the National Park Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife after “showing signs of distress” in recent weeks, including killing a Chihuahua on a leash and attacking another dog.

Picchi was on a work call around 10:50 a.m. when she heard someone buzzing at her front door saying they were with “something wild animal.”

Thinking they were applying to a wildlife charity, Picchi told them it was not the right time.

“The woman said, ‘No, I’m with Wildlife. You have a lion in your garden,” Picchi said in an interview with The Times. “Of course I knew it was P-22 because I followed the story.”

Picchi then opened his front door, letting in wildlife personnel, who told him to keep himself and his dog inside their home while officers attempted to put P-22 to sleep with a dart.

Photos and video taken by Picchi show Fish and Wildlife and National Park Service personnel carrying the sedated big cat in a green blanket and examining it before loading it into a wildlife crate and putting the crate away. back of a truck.

Picchi learned that P-22 had been in his garden since the previous night.

“We have a quarter acre and there are lots of trees. I think he was just resting there,” she said. “He looked healthy.”

The National Park Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.