Beast Caught on Camera is a Dog, Insists Animal Expert
Animal experts have dashed the hopes of big cat believers by
dismissing claims the Brentwood beast has been snapped on camera.While
readers have been contacting the Gazette with tales of their
sightings, experts at Colchester Zoo say the animal snapped by
freelance photographer Stephen Huntley is without question a dog.
Zoo curator Anthony Tropeano has admitted however that it would be
possible for the animal to be surviving alone in the Essex wilderness.
Referring to the snap he said: "There's no doubt about it, it's a dog.
The body shape is just completely wrong for a cat.
"The most telling point of all is that the tail is curved backwards
over the animal's body. It is a very distinctive canine
characteristic. There is no cat in the world which can bend its tail
like that."
But Anthony - who is on the Essex Police big cat call-out team - said
a wild cat could survive among Brentwood's bracken and believes there
may be something in recent reports.
He added: "Anything is possible. An animal like a puma will generally
feed off small animals and rodents.
"When you look at the number of reports there have been up and down
the country, you certainly feel there maybe something somewhere. But
so far nobody has come up with any evidence that substantially
supports it."
Though Anthony said misidentification is easy, a host of Gazette
readers have been in touch, convinced they have seen the feline.
A 'big cat' crossed Victoria Phillips' path as she drove along
Lincolns Lane in June, near to where the cat has been most recently
spotted.
She said: "I was driving along with my sister when the animal crept
out from the side of the road and just strolled out straight in front
of us.
"I had to stop the car or I would have hit it. It moved slowly and was
as big as a dog but walked like a cat. It had its shoulders hunched
like a cat, I've never seen a dog walk like that.
"We were scared, it looked quite menacing. I was glad we were in the car."
Graham Salmon lives in Cambridgeshire but is often in Brentwood on
business. He thinks he spotted the beast in Weald Park three weeks ago.
He said: "On this one occasion I had parked up by the cricket pavilion
and decided to go for a walk - that's when I saw it.
"It was like a big dog, about 2ft 6in high and about 4ft 6in to 5ft
long, and was heading towards the roadside. It was starting to get
dark and I did first think it might be my imagination. But no, it was
definitely a cat-like creature. It went like a shadow through the trees."
Ian Grove, from Shenfield, spotted a puma-like animal roaming fields
near Brentwood in September.
"It was about 9am and I was driving on the Brentwood side of the M25.
As you can imagine I wasn't going anywhere particularly fast, and I
saw it in the corner of my eye, walking across the field there bold as
brass. I just couldn't believe my eyes."
Brentwood Gazette: 8th November 2006
