‘Big cat’ forces dad and son to abandon barbecue
LATEST PUMA REPORT AT BEACH
A DAD and his young son had to abandon their barbecue after seeing a “puma” on the prowl.
Jimmy Butler and his nine-yearold son both saw a “brown or tawny puma” while setting up a barbecue on the beach near Gimblet Rock two weeks ago.
It comes weeks after three fishermen at the same beach spotted an animal matching the same description.
The most recent sighting happened as the pair were preparing to spend the evening of May 12 stargazing when the young boy spotted the animal.
Initially, they thought it was a large dog, but Mr Butler said he quickly realised that wasn’t the case.
Having reported the sighting to Puma Watch, he said: “My lad grabbed me and said ‘what is that? is it a dog?’ When I looked, I first thought ‘yeah,’ but quickly realised this wasn’t the case.
“I panicked and made a bit of noise, to which the cat quickly disappeared. We left straight away.
“Apologies for leaving the barbecue on the beach, but no way I was hanging around.
“We got back to the car and there was a local about to go fishing and I told him what happened and he said he’d heard of four or five sightings of the same description in the last few weeks.
“A very surreal experience. I didn’t think they were even in this country!”
The previous encounter on this beach, believed to be the first of its kind on the Llŷn Peninsula, occurred around the same time earlier in May.
And two weeks ago a member of the public contacted our sister paper The Daily Post with images of an animal carcass found on the same beach, thought to be that of a seal.
Locals say it’s likely to have been left there by a big cat, adding that there have been multiple encounters in this area over the years, including near the golf club which is half a mile away.
Any further sightings can be reported to Puma Watch.