Report from George Markie
UK Big Cats - Where They Are On Loose
By Lucy Rock. From Yowie Hunters 26 th August 2000
THERE have been hundreds of sightings of feral big cats prowling the British countryside terrifying rural communities. Out of focus snatched photos and the unexplained slaughter of sheep and chickens have added fuel to the reports. But despite numerous investigations, nobody has managed to prove their existence beyond doubt.
It is thought they may be former pets released into the wild after new laws in 1976 made it illegal to keep exotic animals without a licence. Former lion tamer Leslie Maiden, of Cradley Heath, West Midlands, claimed in January that he set a cougar and panther free in the Peak District, Derbyshire, in the 1970s. He said:
"I've always been an animal lover. But people came to me, saying they would have to put my animals down. I had no option."
It only become illegal to release wild animals into the countryside in the early 1980s.
Experts believe there could be 100 panthers and pumas roaming free - the offspring of creatures released.
Last week Betty Stephen, 51, spotted a panther-like beast in bushes in Kirkcaldy, Fife, as she walked her dog.
There have been several similar sightings between Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes.
Also this month the Beast of Malvern showed itself again in Worcestershire.
In July police were hunting a big cat which slaughtered sheep in Boblainy Forest, near Inverness.
Toolmaker Roger Kordas, 40, from Leigh Sinton, heard strange noises in a wheat field. He said:
"I shouted to see what the noise was and right before my eyes a black, muscular animal, bigger than a Labrador, with cat-like movements appeared."
His report follows other recent sightings of a feline creature in the area near the River Severn.
In March the Peak Panther appeared in the back garden of a house in Simmondley, near Glossop, Derbyshire.
None of these creatures is as notorious as the Beast of Bodmin which roams the Cornish countryside. But they haunt suburban communities too. The Big Cat of Barnet is on the loose in South Mimms, Herts.
26 th August 2000
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