A Northern California sheriff has declared mountain lions an ‘imminent threat to public safety’ after residents reported increasingly brazen encounters with the predators prowling near homes, pets and elderly residents in rural communities.

The warning came this month in Lassen County in Lake Tahoe near the Nevada border, after locals claimed mountain lions had repeatedly wandered through residential properties in and around Susanville.

Among the residents sounding the alarm was rancher Dreu Murin, whose family has owned land in the area since 1900 and says surveillance cameras captured multiple mountain lions roaming near his parents’ deck and hot tub at night.

At one point, Murin said six mountain lions were caught on camera in his backyard near the family deck.

‘We had six mountain lions show up on camera in our backyard near the deck. That’s not normal,’ Murin told Daily Mail.

His grandmother, Mary Ann Murin, said the growing number of encounters has left residents terrified to even step outside.

‘I won’t even let my grandkids or our dog play outside anymore because of all the mountain lion activity,’ she said in a press release distributed by residents. ‘These animals are everywhere. They are getting comfortable around homes and people, and it’s terrifying.’

Murin also claimed his neighbor recently lost goats to mountain lions, while another resident described a frightening encounter involving a cougar allegedly stalking her while she walked her seven-pound Yorkshire terrier.

‘I was walking my little Yorkie and suddenly realized a mountain lion appeared to be stalking us,’ resident Courtney Thompson said. ‘It was one of the scariest moments of my life because my dog wouldn’t stand a chance against one of these animals.’

The controversy has reignited tensions between rural Californians and state wildlife officials over whether decades of protections for mountain lions have gone too far.

Murin accused the California Department of Fish and Wildlife of failing to protect rural residents, arguing that strict protections for mountain lions have made it harder for communities to deter dangerous animals from entering populated areas.

‘People in these communities feel like they’re being ignored until somebody gets hurt,’ he said. ‘Nobody’s saying mountain lions shouldn’t exist, but there has to be some balance.’

Officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife pushed back against the claims after officers investigated the area following the sheriff’s declaration.

‘They did not see any imminent public safety threat, or any public safety threat at all,’ CDFW spokesman Peter Tira told The Times, noting that Susanville sits near Lassen National Forest within natural mountain lion habitat.

Tira also defended California’s protections for the animals, saying: ‘It’s not a crime to be a mountain lion in California.’

California permanently protected mountain lions in 1990 after voters approved Proposition 117, which banned sport hunting and ended the long-standing practice of chasing the predators with dogs.

Murin argued the restrictions have made it increasingly difficult for residents to keep mountain lions away from neighborhoods and private property.

‘Families here are changing how they live because they’re afraid of running into these predators,’ he said. ‘A lot of us grew up around wildlife, but we’ve never seen behavior like this before.’

The fears intensified after a fatal 2024 cougar attack in El Dorado County left 21-year-old Taylen Brooks dead and his younger brother Wyatt seriously injured while the pair hunted for shed antlers. Officials said it marked California’s first deadly cougar attack in two decades.

Wildlife officials maintain fatal attacks remain extremely rare and say only four people have been killed by mountain lions in California since 1994.