LV police shoot, kill bobcat

Las Vegas police shot and killed a bobcat in a southwest valley neighborhood Friday.

Police say the animal, which had jumped from yard to yard for nearly four hours in the neighborhood near Russell Road and the Las Vegas Beltway, posed a threat to residents and their pets.

A woman in the neighborhood called police after the bobcat ate two of her exotic birds, officer Ramon Denby said. The woman locked herself and her children inside her home.

Police chased the cat and decided to shoot the animal because there were so many children in the area. The Department of Wildlife and Forestry couldn't respond in a timely manner and the officer believed the cat, which was the "size of a medium-sized dog," was a threat, Denby said.

Police believe the bobcat also killed another bird and house cat in the neighborhood.

Police had responded to three other bobcat sightings last week.

On Saturday, a caller told police a bobcat was roaming a neighborhood near Cheyenne Avenue and the Las Vegas Beltway. Authorities failed to catch the animal. Another bobcat was seen earlier last week in a different residential area; a bobcat also was sighted near an elementary school. One of those bobcats got away and the other was shot with a taser by officers, Denby said.

"There were no houses where these things lived four or five years ago; it's their habitat and now we're encroaching on their space more and more," Denby said.