Report from Chris Smith
Giant black cat seen by beaters and Perthshire shooting party
From the Herald, 28 th December 2000
A giant black cat sprinting through woodland shocked a shooting party.
Men beating through a wood to drive out pheasants froze in fear as the beast sped past them.
The cat, described as being 10 times th size of a domestic feline, was seen by three men during a weekend pheasant shoot.
Men beating through a dense pine wood to drive pheasants towards waiting guns say they disturbed the beast hunting rabbits and game birds.
Yesterday, Sandy McKay, of Staunton Rise, Dedridge, Livingstone, described the bast he saw on Saturday: 'It was a huge black cat which was running crouched low under the trees.
'It was no more than 10 yards from me so I had a clear view of it for just a few seconds.
'I was shocked at its size. It had a cat's head and it was quite thin. It had a long tail. It was a big black cat like a panther. It gave me quite a shock.'
His sighting at Green's Landing wood on Taymount Estate was backed by another beater, Ryan Hurley, 17.
Ryan, a trainee gamekeeper in Blanefield, Stirlingshire, said: 'I saw this very big, black creature. It was lying down with its back to me. Then it got up then ran away hunkered down. It moved with amazing speed through the trees.
One of the shooters - Glasgow journalist Arnot McWhinnie - later told them he too had seen a four-foot long cat-like beast in the same wood. 'I was about 20 yards from it,' he said. 'My first instinct was that it was a very wet fox.
Then I dismissed that as I gauged the size of it as it darted in between the trees. It was definitely a big cat.'
The Herald, 28 th December 2000
 |
 |
 |
| Return to index | Return to Scottish Big Cats | Return to Perthshire and Kinross |