Can Large wild cats be shot AOLQ

Back in the 70's /80's when the law changed on keeping big cat how many were released? How many did farmers shoot and just dig a hole and get rid!
 
While I like the idea of genuine big cats roaming the British countryside, I have to ask where is all the evidence, not a single footprint in mud, no hair or DNA samples on barbed wire, not a single carcase (they couldn't have all been shot, buried and footprints swept away)
 
Couple of years ago we demolished a building on the outskirts of Trowbridge including an underground bunker.One of the walls had a blackboard on it with a whole list of instructions on how deal with any animals that had escaped from longleat.
Don’t suppose that was the old council offices building was it? I also wouldn’t mind seeing the photo if you still have it? I grew up around here and still live a 2min walk away from the old site (now houses), always knew the bunker was there but never managed to get in it!
 
Don’t suppose that was the old council offices building was it? I also wouldn’t mind seeing the photo if you still have it? I grew up around here and still live a 2min walk away from the old site (now houses), always knew the bunker was there but never managed to get in it!
Yes it was.It was under the Driving test place and the dentist.If you can remember it there was an old steel door to the side. Open it and it went down about 25 feet to a control centre totally self sufficient.Very interesting.We also took one out beside Ermin street near Swindo.
 
Yes it was.It was under the Driving test place and the dentist.If you can remember it there was an old steel door to the side. Open it and it went down about 25 feet to a control centre totally self sufficient.Very interesting.We also took one out beside Ermin street near Swindo.
Yes I could never get in though it was always very well sealed 🤣.
 
A friend was stalking in a forrest in Scottish borders and a Lynx walked out of the trees offering an easy 50m shot... his rifle was already on the sticks. So he's stood ready to take the shot with this cat looking at him. He decides not to shoot in case he doesn't kill it and it rakes his dog while departing it's mortal coil. Anyway, he reports the sighting to the landowners representative and was given a rollicking and told next time to shoot it. The ixlandowner was National Forrestry Service. I've often wondered how many big cats have been shot and buried by rangers working for the uthorities. Yet if you or I shoot Bagpuss we'd be left to face the media storm of rabid antis with no support from those same authorities.

There's a black panther and a pair of wolves on this perm too.

BTW cut the sarcasm, this is an important subject because the antis and media would love to attack all gun owners should one of us be foolish enough to shoot one of these big cats because of landowner pressure and it leak out. We need to be unified on this point as, in my humble opinion, it's an own goal waiting to happen.
Are they protected species in the UK?
 
That is all I am trying to find out are they classed as feral 🙈

Not for me to go out and look for it to shoot it .


But if your life or somebody else is in immediate danger there would no be a problem.
Maybe not likely someone would own up to losing one?
 
Well looks like it is a grey area . I messaged a man in the know . I asked two questions. The first one was the above . Are they classed as feral . That question was never answered. The second on an another matter was 🙈
 
A friend was stalking in a forrest in Scottish borders and a Lynx walked out of the trees offering an easy 50m shot... his rifle was already on the sticks. So he's stood ready to take the shot with this cat looking at him. He decides not to shoot in case he doesn't kill it and it rakes his dog while departing it's mortal coil. Anyway, he reports the sighting to the landowners representative and was given a rollicking and told next time to shoot it. The landowner was National Forrestry Service. I've often wondered how many big cats have been shot and buried by rangers working for the authorities. Yet if you or I shoot Bagpuss we'd be left to face the media storm of rabid antis with no support from those same authorities.
Did he say whether it had a collar on it?
I know of another trial currently underway and the animals in question are under 24/7 monitoring to ensure they don't stray too far from the trial area.
 
Did he say whether it had a collar on it?
I know of another trial currently underway and the animals in question are under 24/7 monitoring to ensure they don't stray too far from the trial area.
No collar was seen... hunter had a very long close look.
 
My understanding is that shooting ”big cats” is illegal in UK due to CITES regulations (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). Shooting.co.uk suggests that it is unlikely that a shotgun or firearms licence conditions would permit it. Saving a human life might be a defence but who will pay your legal fees? Also, who will protect your property from protesters?
 
I live in Kent, and there are two well known zoos in the county, one near Canterbury, the other about 5 miles from my home at Lypme. Both are run by the John Aspinall foundation and have large cats of different species and many other exotic animals, including some deer.
John Aspinall the founder died some years back, but wrote a book, in which he describes some of the early escapes from the zoo, primarily near Canterbury, this included an escape by a Gorilla! which found its way into a local house in the village.

The other zoo near to me is a more recent one, and in its early days had numerous escapes. This would be in the late 1970's and early 80's if I remember rightly.

It is a well documented fact that the zoo at Canterbury had several more escapes, in fact some Barashinga deer escaped many years back and was responsible for the death of a motorist when it jumped a hedge late at night and went through the windscreen, killing the diver. About 3 years after this event one was shot with a shotgun in a fruit orchard by a shooting man that lived not to far from my home at the time, and I cleaned the skull for him. So escapees from zoos at that time were more common than now.
As I was undertaking more taxidermy commissions at this time, having a young family to support I often heard reports of various animals being seen. This came to light on one occassion when I was asked by a local farmer to preserve a dead Barn Owl he had found in his barn. Nothing unusual there you might think. This would have been back in the early 1980's.

In the discussion prior to my bringing the owl back, which he wanted in a glass dome, he mentioned that a farmer friend had recently had a large number of sheep killed on his farm, and had decided it was foxes. He decided to set a whole string of locking snares around the field in the hope of catching the culprit. But on inspecting the field a day later had found a fairly large spotted cat in one of the snares still alive, and had dispatched it with his shotgun. At the time Canterbury had a large tannery off the edge of Rheims Way. Now gone and built on. I was aware of a local guy who worked there and for a side line did some tanning work for clients to earn a few quid. He was give the skin of this cat to tan and preserve.

I asked if I could see this skin when I returned with the completed Barn Owl. On my return to his farm the skin was available to see, and it turned out to be a Clouded Leopard. He maintained that a local lass who he knew and lived in the village was sacked from the zoo due to her leaving the cage unsecured and that 2 of these cats had escaped and not returned. The skin that I saw and examined was only recently tanned and was not an old one from years back. And as I at the time worked in a large museum of big game I was well versed with big cats. Although not from South America, they were all African and Asian.

I am neither a believer or disbeliever regarding big cats roaming the UK, but it has to be a very low population if this is the case. I have had another personal experience in the field in the UK, which I have explained before on the site, so will not repeat it here. Having also hunted Africa a number of times and worked on many DNA projects within the museum and with Stellenbosch University in SA, I keep an open mind.
 
All zoos and wild life parks are required to at least have a plan for escaped animals.

Very often this is in the form of a firearms team drawn from FAC holding employees, and an EAP which includes liaising / working with the emergency services

Justification for shooting is for the purposes of protecting lives

Until the lurgy hit we were running a 5 day course for parks and zoos developed to meet the need first encountered when I was group safety advisor at Longleat
This . I have a shooting mate that is head of security at a wildlife park . The park pay for his fac/sgc , and his guns.
 
I have an old friend in the UK who was a RSPCA inspector. Many years ago, during a big fire at Gatwick he was on call with his shotgun loaded with slugs to shoot the big cats if it became necessary.
 
I live in Kent, and there are two well known zoos in the county, one near Canterbury, the other about 5 miles from my home at Lypme. Both are run by the John Aspinall foundation and have large cats of different species and many other exotic animals, including some deer.
John Aspinall the founder died some years back, but wrote a book, in which he describes some of the early escapes from the zoo, primarily near Canterbury, this included an escape by a Gorilla! which found its way into a local house in the village.

The other zoo near to me is a more recent one, and in its early days had numerous escapes. This would be in the late 1970's and early 80's if I remember rightly.

It is a well documented fact that the zoo at Canterbury had several more escapes, in fact some Barashinga deer escaped many years back and was responsible for the death of a motorist when it jumped a hedge late at night and went through the windscreen, killing the diver. About 3 years after this event one was shot with a shotgun in a fruit orchard by a shooting man that lived not to far from my home at the time, and I cleaned the skull for him. So escapees from zoos at that time were more common than now.
As I was undertaking more taxidermy commissions at this time, having a young family to support I often heard reports of various animals being seen. This came to light on one occassion when I was asked by a local farmer to preserve a dead Barn Owl he had found in his barn. Nothing unusual there you might think. This would have been back in the early 1980's.

In the discussion prior to my bringing the owl back, which he wanted in a glass dome, he mentioned that a farmer friend had recently had a large number of sheep killed on his farm, and had decided it was foxes. He decided to set a whole string of locking snares around the field in the hope of catching the culprit. But on inspecting the field a day later had found a fairly large spotted cat in one of the snares still alive, and had dispatched it with his shotgun. At the time Canterbury had a large tannery off the edge of Rheims Way. Now gone and built on. I was aware of a local guy who worked there and for a side line did some tanning work for clients to earn a few quid. He was give the skin of this cat to tan and preserve.

I asked if I could see this skin when I returned with the completed Barn Owl. On my return to his farm the skin was available to see, and it turned out to be a Clouded Leopard. He maintained that a local lass who he knew and lived in the village was sacked from the zoo due to her leaving the cage unsecured and that 2 of these cats had escaped and not returned. The skin that I saw and examined was only recently tanned and was not an old one from years back. And as I at the time worked in a large museum of big game I was well versed with big cats. Although not from South America, they were all African and Asian.

I am neither a believer or disbeliever regarding big cats roaming the UK, but it has to be a very low population if this is the case. I have had another personal experience in the field in the UK, which I have explained before on the site, so will not repeat it here. Having also hunted Africa a number of times and worked on many DNA projects within the museum and with Stellenbosch University in SA, I keep an open mind.
I am sure Carrie Symonds will do a cover-up job in her new post if one escapes !

There were often training session for keepers from Chester Zoo at a local clay ground. The coaching included how to shoot big cats running past the shooter who was stood on an elevated bank - it was actually the driven rabbit on the 'sporting targets'. The man who trained the keepers gave me my first and only lesson on driven game - a worthy and capable of 80 yd shots at clays with a 20 bore.
 
is there a lot of Big Black pussy on face book in Wrexham , :-| just asking. I can think of a lot of things to do with that info however killing it would not be my first thought :).
 
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