BIG CAT NEWS: All sorts of stuff

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper column inches than any other cryptozoological subject.

There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived in some way by us, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in.

It takes a long time to do, and is a fairly tedious task, so I am not promising that they will be done each day, but I will do them as regularly as I can. JD

Last week and the week before the hotspot seemed to be Gloucestershire, but this week it looks like the epicentre has moved to the east coast - to Lincolnshire.

Second big cat sighting
Spalding Today
Tuesday, noon - A SECOND big cat was sighted in South Holland yesterday (Monday) – just four days after mum Louise Gann spotted what she thinks was a black panther in a field in Holbeach. Company environmental manager Jeremy Greaves found a big cat in ...

Third big cat sighting
Spalding Today
Tuesday, 4.30pm – BIG cat sightings keep on coming with a reader reporting seeing “a very large black cat” in Chapel Drove, Holbeach Drove, at 7am yesterday. Judy Drew said the creature was much bigger than an ordinary cat and a resident in the area ...

I'm not keen on politicians in general but this man is scum. He is the reason people like me refer to people like him as 'Pigs':

California Fish & Game Commissioner Bags a Big Cat In Idaho; Californians ...
Patch.com
A "trophy shot" of the Golden State's top Fish and Game Commission official hugging the carcass of a mountain lion he'd just treed and shot has Californians steaming. By JD O'Connor Dan Richards gets his mountain lion. Idaho Outdoor News For decades ...



If I could get hold of his home telephone number and address, I would post it here on the blog, with a recommendation that any of my more psychotic readers in the United States could make up their own minds what to do with the information. However, that would probably get me extradited to face trial on some absurd charge on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Anyway I do not have the contact details for this piece of filth. What I do have is this:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/remove-dan-richards-from-the-california-fish-game-commission/

And here is another case of mistaken identity from the Midlands:

Prowling panther or benign bunny?
www.solihullnews.net
DOES a big cat stalk the streets of Marston Green? The answer, according to experts, is no. Kieron McArdle, aged 41, was baffled when he spotted a trail of unusual footprints in a village car park. They had been left on the ground following the flurry ...

Here is another piece of news from the other side of the Atlantic which will probably - especially when you bear in mind the effect of the 1977 Dangerous Wild Animals Act on UK mystery cat reports - have an important impact on mystery cats in the USA:

Bipartisan Bill Prohibiting Private Possession of Big Cats introduced in House ...
MarketWatch (press release)
It is estimated that there are 10000 to 20000 big cats currently held in private ownership in the US, although the exact number remains a mystery. In the past 21 years, US incidents involving captive big cats--tigers, lions, cougars, leopards, jaguars, ...

And this is not a big cat, but an unpleasant feline mystery in the UK:

Mystery as spate of cats found dead in Fulham
Fulham Chronicle
By Adam Courtney CAT owners have been left fearing for their animals' safety after a spate of mysterious deaths in and around Fulham. Sands End resident Maggie Mullins had a shock last week when she opened her front door to find a deceased cat...