Major Moggy Alert ...
If you're walking in the Black Mountains dressed as a cat, watch out, there's armed police about.
Posted: 14 January 2003
by Jon
If you're off walking in the Black Mountains on the Welsh Borders,
don't go dressed as a large moggy unless you have a death wish...
According to last Sunday's Observer, armed police were combing the
area after sightings of a selection of big cat paw prints in the
snow. Dyfed police believe that they could apparently be looking for
between five and seven animals, 'possibly a family of
panthers'.
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The 'Beast of the Peak' -
recently sighted in a garden in
Glossop and credited with numerous attacks on
walkers
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The news follows on from a recent incident near Llandovery where a
big cat killed a whippet and was seen standing over its lifeless body
'with blood over its face'. DNA tests on hairs found in the whippets
mouth may confirm the nature of its attacker, though results aren't
due for two weeks.
There was another sighting of the cat 'at a milk processing plant'
suggesting that moggies have the same basic inclinations regardless
of size. See this
story.
Local farmers were being advised to go out in pairs and carry
high-powered torches at night and local children were being kept
in.
And it's not just Wales. This is the Lake District is reporting
a sighting of a three-foot long moggie in the South Lakes near
Milnthorpe.
It's thought that a number of big cats were released into the wild
following the passing of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act in 1976 and
may now be breeding and living by killing small mammals and the
occasional sheep or lamb. One man has confessed to releasing at least
two big cats into the Peak District, while there have been numerous
sightings in Wales and the West Country as well, as, erm, Bexley in
Kent, where a man was reportedly
attacked by a lynx last year.
• See Cat
Hate UK (really) for lots of links and details of wild cat
sightings in the UK.
• See this BBC
article for a map of recent big cat sightings in the UK.
• See the British
Big Cats Society site for more information on big moggies in the
UK.
Discuss this story
At last, Bexley has a claim to fame AND a mention in an article on OM! Next thing you know, we'll have mountains down here. Whoopah! Si(C)
Posted: 14/01/2003 at 13:07
And they CAN be quite violent. So I've heard. Their natural habitat is Yates's wine bar I believe. Allegedly. Si(C)
Posted: 14/01/2003 at 15:48
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