Giant Cat?I grew up in Salem, Massachusetts during the 70's. Salem is rather like a "Fisher Price" city, in that it has a little of everything. There's a downtown, some ocean front, a bit of woods, a train station, and on the outskirts, a few farms to round things out. Unlike most cities, Salem also has a history of witchcraft, UFOs and sea monsters.

None of those particularly concerned us, but all the kids knew about the monster that was killing 1000-pound pigs at the farm near Thomson's Meadow, a large forboding swamp.

There were actually two different incidents that I remember. One involved a very large dead pig, and tracks that resembed a "fishing cat." I learned that this was a cat from India, not to be confused with the "fisher cat" of the marten family, and that the theory was that some "Hell's Angels" had released one in the woods.

As a kid, I wondered why and how the Hell's Angel's would posses a large jungle cat. Did it ride in a sidecar? Several years later, another cat was supposedly sighted around the meadow. This time, however, I was heavily involved with the Boy Scouts, and I went on a camping trip a few hundred yards from said meadow. I specifically remember being too scared to answer a night-time call of nature, and resolving to wait until daylight. I had a nightmare about being attacked by a giant cat, and woke to find that dawn had broken.  I unzipped the tent, and slowy crawled out into the campsite. Then I heard the distinctive call of a mountain lion. 

 

And yet, at even 14 or so, I didn't believe my own ears. I "heard" the sound, but I never took it seriously, because I knew I'd been primed to hear such things by the news reports and my own dreams. Unless some other evidence came along, I wasn't going to believe that I was sharing this few square miles of woods with a very large carnivore.

Why am I telling you this? Because, in the UK, large cats, usually black, are often sighted. A police officer shot a video last year that he believes proves there are black panters loose in the UK. Near the same time, a "puma" supposedly took down a horse. Here we have video and physical evidence, examined by "experts" who claim that it's likely big cats are roaming the UK. Who are we to doubt that?

Well, we're the skeptics, actually. Doubt is our business, and I believe there is good reason to doubt there is a population of large cats living in the British Isles. It's rather like the US "Bigfoot" phenomena – sightings, fuzzy photos, and stories are not sufficient evidence to prove the existence of  a large mammal. We need more, because this is an extraordinary claim, and we need evidence of matching impact.

For detailed analysis of the most recent cat video, please visit the JREF Forum and read the thread there. Pay particular attention to Rolfe, who makes some very good arguments as to why it's unlikely that there are any ABCs (Anomalous Big Cats) in the UK other than the occassional escaped zoo beasty.

Is it possible that there is a breeding population of large cats in the UK? Yes. Is it likely? No. I am sure of one thing though; if they exist, science will describe them soon enough. As for the big cats of Salem, MA? No further evidence was found. However, in 1994, when I was working for America Online in their Vienna, Virginia offices, we were warned to be on the lookout for cougars in the area. I think our deep-seated and evolutionarily defensible fear of "watchers in the woods" is more at play here than any actual felines, but if someone hits one with their SUV, I'll happily change my stance.

Oh and yes, I also think that's a "moggie" in the policeman's video.