Mountain Lion Attack Claims 15 Alpacas on California Farm

A recent attack by a mountain lion on a California farm has resulted in the tragic death of 15 alpacas. The owners are understandably distressed, grappling with the senselessness of these killings.

Julie Barr, a retired Navy nurse, shared her disbelief last week, mentioning that, prior to this incident, she had never lost any animals to an attack. Her farm, a serene 340-acre property located two hours north of San Francisco, was subjected to this violent invasion over the span of three nights.

Barr, who has dedicated nearly a decade to raising alpacas, expressed her confusion and distrust regarding the attack, noting that the lions didn’t even consume their prey.

“They didn’t just kill; they did it for no reason,” she explained. “Fifteen animals—there’s no way they would eat that many. They went back on two more nights and continued the carnage.”

Her ranch, tucked away in the hills of Lake County, faced its first attack on the night of August 17th.

Barr and her husband heard a commotion and went to check on their alpacas. They found parts of the fence destroyed, likely by the animals trying to escape.

The next morning, the couple’s neighbor, Jesse Cude, reported seeing “eight dead and four still alive,” indicating that further measures had to be taken. “We had to put down four or five,” he mentioned.

That same night, Cude took it upon himself to guard the property with a shotgun, awaiting the return of the lion. “I was sitting quietly when I spotted two cats running toward the alpacas, maybe 20 feet away,” he recalled. “A big cat—probably about 100 pounds—was racing right past me, and I didn’t even realize it until afterward.”

Eventually, two more alpacas perished that night, followed by two more the next evening, culminating in a total of 15 deaths.

California Wildlife spokesman Peter Tiara confirmed the catastrophic event, stating, “It was indeed a mountain lion attack. We issued a non-lethal permit initially.”

After the lions returned, the agency decided to take more drastic action, issuing a permit to capture one adult lion.

Tiara elaborated on the circumstances surrounding the attack, suggesting that when the lions are in a pen with multiple animals, they go into “kill mode.” With any movement, they aim to take down as many as they can.

Experts have reassured Barr that mountain lions typically don’t kill for sport. However, as someone raised in a family of hunters in West Virginia, she finds it difficult to reconcile this with her experiences. “We eat what we kill,” she stated. “But this—it just feels so wasteful.”