Mountain lion kills nine sheep

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Pioneer Press, Fort Jones, California
Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Vol. 32, No. 33
Page 1, column 2

Lion kills nine sheep

* Six sheep were slaughtered the first time.

* Three sheep were killed seven days later.

* Hound on the scent was run-over by a pickup.

By Liz Bowen, Assistant Editor, Pioneer Press, Fort Jones, California

ETNA, CALIFORNIA – If it weren’t for bad luck, Clyde Hammond would have no luck at all. After a mountain lion killed nine sheep within a week, Hammond would rather have no luck, than bad luck. Even the trapper’s hound was hit by a pickup on State Route 3, which runs through the Hammond ranch property. This was a lead hound – a good one.

The hound picked up the lion’s scent and was hot on the trail up the field and on to the highway, when it was hit at the crest of what is referred to as Hammond’s Hill. It was a sad day for the houndsman.

Clyde and his wife, Marilyn Hammond, live just one mile north of this 800 plus population town at the top of the state called. It is called Etna.

His mom, Jesse Hammond, lives half a mile below at the ranch headquarters. The family has owned this ranch since 1945. Clyde’s mom and dad, ran 150 head of sheep, when he started growing his herd in 1952.

Predators have attacked and killed sheep before. Coyotes are the biggest threat, but over the years a few bears have confiscated sheep.

Yet, never has a mountain lion

killed any sheep.

This first time has the Hammond family frustrated, discouraged and downright jumpy.

Each night, Clyde brings the herd of 60 head up from the field and puts them to bed in the corral. It is right in front of Jesse’s old Victorian home.

Chain-link wire fences three sides of the corral keeping the coyotes at bay. Marilyn also bought a miniature donkey, which has become a protector from the coyotes, but apparently not from mountain lions.

"He got one of my bummer lambs," sighs Marilyn, who loves the lambs that she feeds from their birth.

"I don’t know what to do," Clyde said.

Siskiyou County Trapper, Scott Styles, brought in two live-cage traps. A houndsman was not able to get to the ranch until several days after the first attack. The dogs did not pick up a scent. So far, the live traps haven’t worked either. Jesse is frustrated that the ground steak she is using for bait was eaten, but nothing was trapped.

Clyde stands at the traps, which earlier were baited with meat from the dead sheep. He knows where each ready-for-market lamb was found dead. The traps are in a good place, near the middle of the kills. Nearly $1,000 worth of sheep has been destroyed. But the lost money isn’t nearly as much of the worry as the blatant killings.

First attack was June 18

Since the first attack on June 18, Clyde has been locking the sheep up in smaller quarters. The herd is divided into three groups and one group goes in the stock trailer, another in the weigh scales and another in sale barn. The trailer is the only area where the sheep really are safe from the lion. This sheep rancher knows the other two groups are still vulnerable.

Second attack was June 25

The second attack was one week later on June 25, when Clyde did not confine the herd, but left them in the corral. Three were killed that night.

The best solution, for now, is to find and destroy the lion. Only two of the eight larger sheep were eaten. The others were killed through a throat bite. The heart and liver were eaten from several lambs. In the first attack, a four-day old lamb was missing and presumed to have been packed off by the lion.