The Daily Telegraph

Leopard on loose hunts sheep for week

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‘I’ve got three children that were playing outside on Boxing Day ... No one was hurt, but if the leopard had come in our direction it could have been a different situation’

A PET leopard escaped and hunted sheep as it ran free for a week in Cornish countrysid­e, it emerged yesterday. The animal’s killing spree only ended when a farmer laid fox traps after losing his herd and trapped the clouded leopard, usually found in the Himalayan foothills.

Police officers attended and said the big cat had escaped from a nearby enclosure and the owner was trying to find it.

Neighbours claimed it belonged to local, Todd Dalton, who famously won a legal battle to keep the meat-eating animals in his London garden 12 years ago.

It escaped on Boxing Day from a private property in Great Treverran, Cornwall, and was found on a farm a mile away in Milltown on Dec 31, a farmer said. A neighbour said yesterrece­nt day: “I’ve got three children that were playing outside on Boxing Day and if I had known I would have kept them inside. No one was hurt, but if the leopard had come in our direction it could have been a different situation.”

They added they wanted the animal’s keeper to lose their license from Cornwall Council. A spokesman for the council said: “The owner of the animal that escaped does have the appropriat­e dangerous wild animal licence.” Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed that a clouded leopard had escaped after its enclosure was damaged by wet weather, and said it had reports of dead sheep.

Mr Dalton was approached for comment but denied owning a private zoo, refused to admit that the leopard belonged to him, and refused to comment on the story.

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