Pets And Animals

The Face Of The Man Who Tried To Pet Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion Injures Man Who Said He Was Just Trying To Pet The Animal's Cubs

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. Saying he "wasn't scared at all", a self-described homeless man told KCAL 9 reporter Michele Gile in an interview that he tried to pet three mountain lion cubs because he "was fascinated by them" and "because I'm a Leo...I'm a lion, too."

Kevin Lassiter, 47, is lucky the mother lion considered him kin. The worst Lassiter got was a nasty swipe on his arm. He could have been killed.

Still, Lassiter told Gile his personal safety was never in question. "I was never worried about it," Lassiter said, "I saw the little babies ...and I just wanted to say hi. And here comes mom and she wacked me in the arm."

Authorities Wednesday called off the search for a mountain lion and three cubs on Borrego Trail in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park.

The victim was being treated for superficial wounds at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills. Lassiter said he needed 27 stitches to close his wounds. He was also given a rabies shot.

Richard Bales, who manages a gas station in the area, said the victim came to his business bleeding profusely from his right arm.

"He had three ... scratches along the arm, about four or five inches long," Bales said. "And he had blood all over his clothes, and it was getting all over the floor. He explained that he was in the park across the street and had seen a mountain lion, and he apparently reached to pet it and that it scratched him. We went ahead and rendered first aid. We tried to stop the bleeding and we went in and called 911 to let the sheriff and medical personnel know so that we could bring assistance to him."

Bales said the man is a regular customer and he walks with a cane and has some paralysis.

Park rangers, sheriff's deputies and Department of Fish and Game personnel, with the help of a helicopter, were searching the area.

The park has been closed, along with Foothill Elementary School, which is less than a mile from the area, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. 

"If it happened the way the victim stated, he should consider himself very lucky to walk away with minor injuries," Amormino said. "If the mountain lion did scratch him, it was a provoked incident, and we're probably not going to do anything" to the mountain lion.

Park rangers, sheriff's deputies and Department of Fish and Game personnel, with the help of a helicopter, were searching the area.

The park had been closed, along with Foothill Elementary School, which is less than a mile from the area, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. 

By 4:30, the search was called off and the Wilderness Park re-opened to the public.

Gile also asked Lassiter if he would ever pet a mountain lion again and he said, deadpan, "No, I will not."

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)