19. THE SEVENOAKS JACKAL
In February 1905, many farmers in or near Sevenoaks, Kent, were losing livestock to some mystery predator that had been killing and maiming sheep on almost every farm in the neighbourhood. It was decided to hunt down this ‘wolf’, as it was presumed to be, and on 1 March a party of 30 guns went scouring the Weald to run the beast to earth. A navvy saw a large, dog-like creature come running with half a lamb in its mouth, entering Earl Amherst’s estate. The huntsmen followed the predator and it was shot dead by Mr Willis, gamekeeper to Mr RK Hodgson Esq. It was soon clear that this was no wolf or dog, but a jackal, although no person could comprehend how such an exotic beast could have come to Kent. The dead body of the creature was photographed by Mr Essenhigh Corke, of Sevenoaks.
The Sevenoaks Jackal safely disposed of, a debate was begun about how to recoup some of the expenses caused by the depredations of the animal. It was decided to send the cadaver to Mr AS Hutchison, the celebrated Derby taxidermist, who had been responsible for the preservation of the head of another out-of-place predator, the Allendale Wolf, after this animal had been run over by a train in 1904 (see “The Last Wolf in England”, by John Reppion, FT375:50-53). It was remarked that the teeth of the Sevenoaks Jackal were in good working order: strong and sharp, and much more formidable than those of a fox. The Pall Mall Gazette wrote that “It begins to look as if England were reverting to the conditions picturesquely described in the early pages of English history, when wolves and other interesting creatures were not confined to the zoo.” Any person applying for the skin, claiming to be the owner of the jackal, should be forced to pay for the killed sheep in exchange.
In his 1931 book Lo!, Charles Fort briefly discussed the Sevenoaks Jackal, claiming that: “There is no findable explanation, nor attempted explanation, of how the animal got there.” These views of the great occult philosopher have been quoted, with approbation, in many modern books about out-of-place animals and paranormal aspects of Kent. No travelling menagerie had been in the neighbourhood for many months. It is notable, though, that the educated zoologists who examined the mystery animal described it as an Indian jackal, raising the possibility that a soldier or officer serving in India might have taken the young creature home with him as a pet, only to have it escape from his custody or release it into the wild once its fierce nature and morose character became too much for him to bear.