Uncle of brothers involved in fatal mountain lion attack calls for change in California policy

GEORGETOWN – Nearly three months after a fatal mountain lion attack in Northern California, we hear from a family member who is turning the devastating incident involving his nephews into a call for change.

The attack at the end of March killed Taylen Brooks, 21, and seriously injured his brother Wyatt Brooks, 18. while they were hunting for shed antlers.

“We are really playing with fire, and what happened to Taylen and Wyatt may end up being just the tip of the iceberg,” said Malcolm Brooks, Taylen and Wyatt’s uncle. “The question is not if, but when.”

Brooks said his nephews were both avid outdoorsmen and learned at a very young age what to do if they ever encountered a mountain lion.

The mountain lion attacked Wyatt first, and Taylen tried to drive the lion away from his brother. Wyatt was the one who ultimately called 911 after his brother was dragged away by the mountain lion.

“This is the first documented case in the United States of two adult men being attacked and confronted head-on by a mountain lion,” Brooks said.

He said he missed a call from his mother, Taylen and Wyatt’s grandmother, on the day of the attack, and then received a text message confirming the family’s worst nightmare.

“She said in the text message that Taylen had been killed by a mountain lion, and my first reaction was that this had to be some kind of weird prank. ‘This is obviously not my mom texting me. This is some kind of silly hijacking of her phone or something,'” Brooks said.

Brooks said he has been doing extensive research on mountain lions and possible actions since the attack, particularly with regard to Proposition 117.

Passed in 1990, it “establishes that the mountain lion is a specially protected mammal under the laws of this state and makes it unlawful to hunt, injure, possess, transport, import, or sell a mountain lion or any mountain lion product.”

Brooks said the problem is that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife implemented a three-strikes policy in 2017.

“A stakeholder, landowner or rancher must generally prove that the same lion has entered the property three times for predatory purposes before issuing a lethal hunt permit,” Brooks said.

He said he didn’t want anyone else to end up in the same situation as his nephews, even though they had done everything right.

“You don’t know what an individual lion is going to do. This disproves the idea that you can predict the behavior of a big cat, because that doesn’t seem to be possible,” Brooks said.

Brooks explained that the goal is not to completely eradicate mountain lions, but to prevent them from interacting with humans.

“Find a way to allow hunting permits for people with lion dogs. No kill permits, just hunting permits. Put pressure on that population. Get them to move away from human settlements,” Brooks said.

As for Wyatt, Brooks said he is as resilient as ever and is handling the situation better than most.

“His septum is still pretty destroyed internally, but from the outside it looks 90 percent the same as it did before the incident,” Brooks said.