Rossendale valley puma

[madhatter]

This puma has been spotted all over the valley now, Brittania, Stacksteads, Newchurch, Rawtenstall. Very strange it is, and no reports of animals escaped. Maybe it's a ghost puma.

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A BEAST resembling a black puma has been reported on the prowl in Rossendale.

The mystery animal was spotted in a garden by a resident in Bankside Lane, Bacup, last Saturday night.

Philip Ains-worth also found several paw prints it had made in the grass.

Describing what has now been dubbed ‘The Huttock Top Beast’, he said: ‘The security light came on and I saw it in my next door neighbour’s garden. It was just a chance sighting. It was about four to five feet long with a tail that was about three feet long.

‘I went next door the following day and I could see the paw prints it had made in the grass. They measured around four to five inches long and you could see the shape of the pads and the claw marks.’

Mr Ainsworth aims to capture footage of the big cat using hi-tech infra-red cameras.

Meanwhile, a farmer has blamed the puma-like animal for a number of attacks on his livestock at Animal Quackers petting farm.

www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/s/1035732_valley_puma_on_the_prowl

[madhatter]

More sightings of the puma.

A PET lover who claims to have seen a mysterious big cat is refusing to walk her dog in the area again over fears it will be attacked.

Terrified Emma Ashworth even takes a stick out with her when she walks her pug puppy Percy.

In recent weeks residents across the Valley have seen the wild cat, dubbed the Huttock Top Beast, roaming on the moors.

It was mid-January when Emma had an encounter with the big cat while walking her 15-week-old pug puppy Percy along the lane by Huttock Top Farm in Bacup – the location of the original sighting.
She said: ‘About 100 metres away I saw this black cat; It had that really distinctive way of walking that cats have but it was about the size of a big dog.

‘It walked across the path and into the field.

‘I was scared to death. I walked up the lane a bit and looked into the field but I couldn’t see anything; it was raining, an awful day, but I wanted to get away in case it came back and ate my dog – or me.’

www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/s/1037754_i_saw_huttock_top_beast


And photographs of paw prints in the snow.

www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/s/1036715_beast_paws_in_the_snow?related_link