GRAPHIC PICTURES: St Albans dog walker finds severed deer foot remains - is this more proof of the controversial big cat?
The deer foot found by a dog walker in Wheathampstead - Credit: Archant
A severed deer foot carcass found by a unsuspecting dog walker may be yet another piece of evidence for the existence of the St Albans big cat.
The deer foot found by a dog walker in Wheathampstead - Credit: Archant
Sue Greenwood was walking her dog in Wheathampstead at about lunchtime on Tuesday October 3 when she spotted the remains of a single deer foot and lower leg, with stripped bone broken and completely exposed just above the knee joint.
She said: “I walk there all the time, and I am walking around with my dog and literally it was on the side of the footpath. It was fresh and soft. It can’t have been a fox, it was possibly this big cat.
“What was left there, a fox wouldn’t have killed and stripped it like that.”
Although she used to disbelieve reports of a big cat sighting, Sue admits she is now a “bit of a believer”.
Cougar walking in a grassy field - Credit: Getty Images/Purestock
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“I haven’t seen the big cat, but it’s hard to believe anything else has done that. I used to be a sceptic but now I’m not, but it doesn’t bother me because I know it won’t attack me unless it’s cornered.”
Adding: “I don’t know where the rest [of the deer] is because that was on its own, there weren’t any bits, there was no blood - unless it dragged it away.”
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This latest finding is just another piece in the big cat puzzle - witness reports have been building up over this year, and a taxi driver even managed to snap a highly debated video of the potential beast.
Half of a mutilated deer, stripped to the spine, was found by a different dog walker in April and in June large “feline” pawprints were preserved leading through a golf bunker after a night of rain.
Is this further proof of the Hertfordshire big cat? - Credit: Archant
In January two Oaklands College staff members saw “a large, sandy-coloured cat”, scratch marks were found on a tree after a “huge animal” was seen near Welwyn, and a big black cat was spotted by Luton Airport last year.
Reports have come from all around the district, including Wheathampstead, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Sandridge, and Luton.
A Freedom of Information request in November 2016 revealed that Herts Police received about 30 big cat reports in the previous five years. They ask sightings are reported on 101 and a safe distance is kept from the animal.
Seen the big cat? Email hertsad@archant.co.uk
This savaged deer was found by a dog walker earlier this year - Credit: Archant