A mountain lion apparently killed three rare goats in Dogtown last month.

The goats belonged to Richard Kirschman and Doris Ober, who said two of the animals were taken from a fenced pen while the third was found inside the pen with a wound to its neck.

Kirschman has contacted the Park Service and state Fish and Game staff, both of which told him the only local animal strong enough to leap a five-foot fence carrying a 40-pound goat is a mountain lion.

As much as he did not like losing the goats, Kirschman last week told The Light it is "wonderful" that lions roam this close to San Francisco.

For more than three years, Ober, 52, and Kirschman, 64, have been raising rare San Clemente goats on their hillside property. They said they got the goats to keep the brush down and to help save the species.

The Spaniards originally brought the goats to the Channel Islands (off Los Angeles) during the 16th century. The goats were never domesticated and evolved into the "wiliest" and "wildest" creatures, Kirschman said.

By the 1970s, they had become a major nuisance and ecological disaster for San Clemente Island's owner, the US Navy. Between 1972 and 1989, the Navy killed up to 28,000 of them before the survivors were airlifted out. Today less than 200 purebred San Clemente goats survive.

Kirschman and Ober, however, have been so successful in breeding their goats that earlier this year they decided to sell 16 to breeders and the Tacoma zoo. The goats cost $100 a head, so the animals are too expensive for a dinner, the couple said.

To protect their herd, Kirschman and Ober have now installed an electric fence and keep their remaining three goats, along with a llama and five sheep, inside the fence at night.