As the sun’s morning rays beat down over her 3-acre Malibu ranch Friday, Victoria Vaughn-Perling hauled out rolls of chain-link fencing, split wire with bolt cutters and helped volunteers connect steel poles.

Vaughn-Perling recently became the center of unwanted national attention and ire when she obtained a state permit to shoot the animal suspected of slaughtering 10 alpacas on her property. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife issued the temporary depredation order allowing her to kill the culprit, believed to be a mountain lion known as P-45.

Vaughn-Perling later said she never wanted to hurt the animal, but was pressured by other ranchers to take out the permit, which expired Thursday.

The drama drew attention to the intersection of urban living and wildlife.

• RELATED PHOTOS: Volunteers build mountain lion-proof enclosures to protect livestock from P-45

On Friday, she helped volunteers with the Mountain Lion Foundation and other groups to build four pens on her property. The goal is to keep her alpacas safe while at the same time respect P-45, the roughly 4-year-old male mountain lion that’s suspected by National Park Service biologists of prowling near Vaughn-Perling’s ranch. The park service confirmed that the cat, which wears a radio transmitter, had been in the area on Nov. 25, the night of the attack.

The pens also represent a peace offering between ranchers who want to keep their livestock safe and those who want to protect wildlife.

“I feel like a bridge is being built,” said Dana Stangel, a wildlife educator and executive director for Teranga Ranch in Sunland. Stangel was among the volunteers helping to build the pens.

“We all want all the animals to be safe,” she added.

The Mountain Lion Foundation hopes more ranchers will consider reaching out to their organization to learn how to build such pens. Staff members with L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl’s office recently asked the foundation to assist Vaughn-Perling with the lion-resistant enclosures. The cost of the enclosures was covered by the National Wildlife Federation and the county gave the OK on the size of the pens.

“P-45 has brought needed public attention to an avoidable problem,” said Lynn Cullens, executive director for the Mountain Lion Foundation. “We’ve been building secure enclosures to protect livestock from mountain lions since 2003, and we believe that protecting people, pets and livestock is by far the best way to further mountain lion conservation in California.”

• RELATED STORY: LA’s mountain lions – including P-45 – in danger of extinction

Cullens said there were 252 depredation permits issued in the Golden State last year, and 101 lions were directly killed as a result.

The organization is working with state Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, to sponsor a bill that would change existing laws regarding depredation of mountain lions in California.

Meanwhile, capturing and relocating P-45 is unlikely, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, because it would pose risks to the relocated mountain lion and others of its kind, officials said. The agency’s director, Charlton Bonham, ruled it out Thursday at a commission meeting.

“Our director indicated that we will not pursue this mountain lion for capture, captivity, relocation or kill,” Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Jordan Traverso said in an email to the Daily News.

For her part, Vaughn-Perling said Friday the whole issue has become a great learning experience. She said she was grateful for the help she received from the organizations and volunteers. All the confusion and misunderstanding, she added, resulted in her meeting good people who wanted to help her.

“This is much more than I expected,’ she said of the four, 10-by-10 enclosures where her alpacas could be kept safe.

“I’m grateful and delighted,” she added.

Staff writer Ryan Fonseca contributed to this story.