Location: Minting on the outskirts of Horncastle in Lincolnshire, England.
Footage of what appears to be a very large cat was taken by Frank Speake on the 12th of September 2003. Myself, Simon Mullins who is the Lincolnshire representative for the British Big Cat Society and Chris Mullins of Beastwatch UK visited Frank and his wife at their home where the footage was taken on the 28th of September.
This is a still taken from the actual video.
After experiments with the cutout and talking with Frank I am convinced that this cat is not a normal domestic. In fact it was pointed out that a domestic would not even been seen in the dip that the cat was actually in, because it is a cat and not a pony as some person suggested.
The footage is only about 20 seconds long but shows an all white, almost bright white cat. It has a small head with rippling shoulders, the muscles are very evident. If this was black there would be no trouble in identifying this creature, I do believe. But it is not black it is bright white!
Frank is a likable amiable man and I have no reason to disbelieve his account, well I cannot even if I wanted to it is there in black and white for us all to see.
He was sat eating his breakfast when he saw the animal which he initially thought to be a calf, but no calf moved like that. Standing up he was somewhat taken aback to see a large white cat. He grabbed his camera and rushed outside managing to capture a few seconds of film before the animal walked out of view behind tree's.
Frank describes the animal as quite slender but far bigger than a domestic feline as the ground slopes down towards the trees and a domestic cat would have been impossible to see. He reckons it was easily the size of an Alsation dog.
Also near the trees he found an area where it looked like a large animal had been lying and several mauled birds.
Regards the size estimation Frank makes I would tend to agree.
It is not the first time a large white cat has been seen in the area. 18 months ago and a quarter of a mile from Frank's home a lady sat terrified in her kitchen while a large white cat prolwed in her garden. She locked all the doors and called the police. Two weeks after Frank's sighting a white cat with black marking's was seen in the area although details are sketchy.
On the 14th of October a white cat was seen at Saltfleetby by a witness who wishes to remain anonymous. The witness said: "The cat was moving very fast and smoothly from right to left across the road in front of me and it disappeared into the gardens of some property I was passing.
The animal appeared to be white but colour could have been leached by my car's headlights The tail was held almost traight out behind.
The witness continues: " The animal was taller than a great dane and moved very fast indeed; its movement was smooth and even, with no up and down motion of the haunches such as a lion or tiger would display. It looked white/off white but I imagine some colour would have appeared to be leached in the car's headlights. There were no visible stripes or other markings. It appeared to be smooth and short haired and although the tail made me think of a lion's tail in terms of length there was no tuft of hair at the tip; it was quite plain. It moved very quickly across my view so I gained most impression of the body and tail and can recall little of the head. The body gave the impression of muscular strength without the sharp body contours which sometimes go with this.
Frank Speake Replies To Various Comments emailed to Radio Lincolnshire which is hosted by Paul Sims.
Hi,
Frank Speake here.
I have been listening to this mornings breakfast programme and found peoples reactions very interesting. Sceptics, yes me too. I have always taken these sightings with a pinch of salt whilst also giving credence to the fact that it is possible that there could be escapees at large.
The animal I saw when looking through binoculars was clearly a cat like animal and very large. I personally have never called it a "Puma".
Yes I agree it is somewhat unusual that it is white and of course that is what gained my attention in the first place.
Everyone that has seen the film on the mini-DV tape instantly say WOW!!! that's a big cat.
The field it was in also houses cattle, no sheep, horses/pony's pigs or dogs!, they don't get on well with the Bull.
It would have to have been a very small pony and I would be interested to here how such an animal could infiltrate an area completely surrounded by hedge,barbedwire and an electric fence.
It does clearly carry it's tail in a very cat like way and is at least two thirds the length of it's body. It also kept a very low profile and it's limbs moved very like a domestic cat on the prowl, trotting? sorry, must have seen a different film to the one I shot.
I have been told by a lady in the village that another sighting in the same field was reported about 18 months ago and experts were called including the police who confirmed large cat like prints in the snow. I am told that the person who made this sighting was very frightened.
Hoax? sorry ,well not on my part anyway, if it was I can see no point or gain as it would only be visible at that point from my lounge window.
I have asked for the film to be properly analysed but not had much of a reaction to this, needs expert attention and I would be happy to be proved right or wrong. Unfortunately the film has not been returned to me at this time from the TV units that used it.
Many Thanks
Frank Speake.
Frank Speake adds more.
Hi,
Just a brief update on the Minting sighting.
Very mixed comments from local people some ridicule but I have to say that the "country people", people who have spent most if not all their lives, living and working in and around the area agree that it is very possible we have such animals living in the countryside.
Yesterday, Saturday, the sighting area was visited by three gentlemen, one from the Scottish Big Cat Society another from the British Big Cat Society and Exotic Beasts UK.
They set up models in the area of sighting and took comparisons to the film I shot and it became very obvious to me that what I saw was most definitely a very big animal anything smaller than the dummy, for instance a very, very large domestic cat would not have been visible in the location it was filmed.
When I first saw the model they brought, I thought this is very large and maybe the animal in the field was not as large as I thought it to be. However when it was placed in the positions where I first observed it, it was plain to see it was very close to what I had filmed, and when a comparison film was taken on my camera my own personal doubts were most definitely dispelled.
The gentleman from SBCS said that although he could not confirm the species of the animal in the film, in his opinion there was no doubt that it was a big cat and definitely not of the domestic variety. It's shape size and poise taken in relation to the size of it's head in comparison to body and tail size would suggest it could be a Leopard, but no one has heard of a white Leopard.
The original film shot, with film shot of the dummy animal on my camera and film taken with SBCS equipment has been taken away for further investigation.
There is a large domestic cat in the area which belongs to our local ale house, which some people have suggested it may be, however we see this animal everyday and although it is predominately white it has other colours on it's body which tend to break up it's body shape at distance.
By the way it has been sighted again since the 12-09-03, almost the same place and to within 10mins of the same time.
Sorry did I say brief?
Frank Speake.
