A resident of Woodside, California, drove her car to the lawn on Wednesday night to scare a mountain lion who was attacking her dog, officials said.
The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office said the dog’s owners were at home when they heard a commotion in their yard just before 10:00 pm.
“When they looked out the window, they saw a mountain lion holding the dog by the neck,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. One of the owners got into his car and drove out to the lawn to scare the mountain lion, said the sheriff’s office.
The owners told the sheriff’s office that the mountain lion had to climb a six-foot-high deer fence to access the property.
The dog was taken to the vet and is expected to fully recover, officials said.
The sheriff’s office is asking residents to report any sightings of mountain lions.
Mountain lion sightings are not uncommon in the San Francisco Bay area, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that 4,000 to 6,000 mountain lions live in California.
The animals mainly attack deer and other wild animals, but they also feed on vulnerable pets and livestock. Fish and Wildlife receives hundreds of reports annually on attacks on pets.
The department advises bringing pets inside when mountain lions are most active – at dawn, dusk and at night. Pet food should also be brought inside to avoid attracting raccoons and other wildlife that mountain lions attack, according to Fish and Wildlife.
Conflicts between people and lions occur, but they are rare. “There have been only 16 verified mountain lion attacks on humans in California since 1890, six of them fatal,” said Fish and Wildlife. “The last documented attack took place in September 2014 in Santa Clara County.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated on March 18 at 2:30 pm, after new information was received about the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office incident.