Los Angeles mourns the death of cougar P-22 with memorials planned
Tori Richards
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Los Angeles is in mourning for a beloved mountain lion euthanized over the weekend, with effusive and tearful tributes pouring in from the likes of Gov. Gavin Newsom, while others plan memorial walks and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
State Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, who proposed the star, also thinks a bronze statue would do justice to P-22, who delighted Los Angeles for a decade with his exploits roaming Griffith Park.
Others planned memorial walks in the hillsides where P-22 once roamed. Councilwoman Nithya Raman sponsored a hike Sunday night and more are planned for Monday and the weekend.
P-22 was the city’s unofficial mascot with numerous documentaries and magazine spreads to his credit. He was arguably the most famous Hollywood cat since the MGM’s Leo the Lion became synonymous with the movie industry in the early 20
th
Century.
Leo left his paw prints on the Walk of Fame near Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
For now, P-22 must settle for an exhibit in his honor at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.
Tributes have poured into social media over the death of P-22 Saturday after doctors found catastrophic injuries due to a recent car accident.
He was brought in for observation and hopes of transporting him to an animal sanctuary quickly dimmed as doctors found “no hope for a positive outcome,” the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.
The news shocked and saddened Angelenos who were used to seeing periodic surveillance videos of the cat lounging in backyards or prowling for small prey under the Hollywood sign.
“Today I learned that all cats go to heaven too,” tweeted @MountainLionP22, the cat’s twitter handle.
This was followed by a tweet from a woman who posted a picture of her deceased cat saying, “If you run into this little lady, please tell her I miss her.”
P22 responded by saying, “I’ll take good care of her.”
A similar tribute page on Facebook was filled with hundreds of comments, including a photo of the marquee on a silent movie theater that said, “Rest Puma P22. Love, LA.”
P-22 trended on Twitter over the weekend, as many made plans for memorials or gave their thoughts on endangered wildlife forced to coexist with humans in an urban environment.
The cougar has lived in Griffith Park since at least 2012, surviving a hazardous 40 mile trek from the Santa Monica Mountains that involved crossing two freeways.
NBC Los Angeles reporter Robert Kovacik once responded to a P-22 sighting and crawled under a home to snap a photo of the feline comfortably resting along a back wall.
“My boy, you meant so much to so many and to me. I’ll never forget the time we shared underneath that Los Feliz home…Sleep well, your reign has ended,” he tweeted.
Even Newsom and Schiff (D-CA) posted their thoughts on P-22’s amazing life, reflecting on the legacy that he left including the construction of a the world’s largest wildlife freeway crossing.
The cat was tagged by the National Parks Service in 2012 and became the face of a conservation effort for California’s mountain lions called #SaveLACougars. The group announced on Facebook that more than 500 orders for T-shirts have come in since P-22’s passing.
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P-22 was tracked over the years in a joint venture with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), periodically brought in for medical treatment when photos surfaced showing that he looked unwell.
But his behavior began changing this year as he ventured further into populated areas and attacked two dogs in the past month. Last week he was tranquilized and examined by two dozen experts from the San Diego Zoo.
They saw a severe weight loss but even more alarming was damage from the car accident. P-22 had a torn diaphragm that pushed his liver into his chest cavity along with a skull fracture and an eye injury, the Washington Post reported.
In addition, he had liver and kidney failure along with other maladies due to old age. The decision to euthanize him was a difficult one, said a tearful Charlton Bonham, CDFW director, during a press conference.
“I made the decision that the right thing to do was to bring peace now, rather than have P-22 continue through what would not have been acceptable, from a compassionate level, in my mind,” he said.
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“I sat near him, looking into his eyes for a few minutes, and told him he was a good boy,” said Beth Pratt with the National Wildlife Federation. “I told him how much I loved him. How much the world loved him.”