Leopard on loose hunts sheep for week
‘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.