Black Country Beast
Is a lion really on the loose in the Midlands?
WheN Dawn Paige woke up and discovered her wheelie bins had been moved, she feared a burglar had bumped into them.
But her CCTV security system revealed the 3am intruder was actually a ‘big cat’ on the hunt for scraps of food.
Yesterday the four-legged visitor was dubbed the Beast of the Black Country as mrs Paige, 53, told of her fears that a lion was on the loose. The teaching assistant described her terror when she saw the video of what she believes is a female lion outside her home in oldbury, West midlands, last monday morning.
She said: ‘i had the shock of my life when i saw that thing come into view. i was physically shaking. at first, i thought it must be a big dog, but it moves just like a cat.
‘i took the footage into work and asked some of the teachers what they thought, and they agree with me it looks like a leopard, or a shelion. i’ve got a little dog and i’m absolutely terrified for her safety.’
The semi-detached property is just four miles from Dudley Zoo – home to nine big cats – but staff yesterday confirmed none of their felines was missing. and experts poured scorn on the fears, saying the animal was a ‘large dog’.
Danny Bamping, founder of the British Big Cats Society, said: ‘This is footage of a large boxer dog. The profile of the animal is clearly that of a large dog, in my opinion.’
Richard Brown, a curator at Dudley Zoo and a former big cat keeper, agreed that the animal was a ‘boxer or mastiff-type dog’.
he added: ‘it appears to have a muzzle on it, whereas cats have flatter faces. it’s also flat-footed in the way it walks, and is flatter along the back than i would expect a big cat to appear.’ Wild animal expert Jon Downes, director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, said: ‘my gut feeling is that it is a dog, although the tail is a little odd.’ But mrs Paige’s neighbour, Rachel George, 47, who posted the video on Facebook to establish if the animal was a missing pet, said it was right to warn people a strange animal had been spotted. She added: ‘There were so many people worried about what it might be, and thousands of people commenting, saying they thought it was a big cat. i just wanted to warn people living round here, especially if they have children.’