Mountain lion bill spawned from deadly El Dorado attack on brothers passes through committee with amendments
SACRAMENTO — One year after a mountain lion attack on two brothers claimed one of their lives in El Dorado County, the family is fighting to change the rules to keep the cougars in check.
Wyatt Brooks, 18, and his family were at the California State Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday in support of a bill named for him and his brother, Taylen, 21.
Senate Bill 818, also known as "Taylen and Wyatt's Law," originally aimed to create a pilot program in the county allowing permitted houndsmen to haze mountain lions away from populated areas.
However, Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil, the lawmaker backing it, said that a version of the bill with "hostile amendments" was passed out of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee.
Those amendments removed hounding entirely from the bill and require the California Department of Fish and Wildlife "to create a broader mountain lion conflict reduction program," Senator Alvarado-Gil's office said.
The Brooks brothers were attacked by a mountain lion last year while they were antler-shed hunting near Georgetown. Taylen lost his life while Wyatt survived.
"This landed on the family like a nuclear bomb. Never experienced any sort of family tragedy," said Malcolm Brooks, the brothers' uncle. "It sort of just galvanized us to make sure that what happened to Wyatt and Taylen is not just something that becomes a footnote in a history book but actually does something to bring some socially constructive closure to it."
Mountain lions are a protected animal under California law, but El Dorado County has seen a surge in attacks on livestock in recent years.
Before 2020, the county saw an average of about 30 animals killed each year. But last year, that number reached 230 and includes horses and large dogs.
Opponents of the bill worry that the hazing would actually lead to more attacks by stressing and injuring the big cats.
The Brook family is against the amended bill, and Alvarado-Gil's office said she is working on how to proceed.
