MoD chiefs 'hid evidence' of big cats prowling UK, new book claims

-Puma's body 'is being kept in secure vault at RAF base'


By Damien Gayle

Ministry of Defence chiefs are covering up the existence of big cats stalking the British countryside, according to explosive claims in a new book.

Hundreds of big cat sightings have been recorded over the years, from the Beast of Bodmin Moor to the Surrey Puma, but it is now claimed that evidence of them has been suppressed.

Rick Minter, author of Big Cats: Facing Britain's Wild Predators, claims that the body of a fearsome puma-like animal is being kept hidden in a top security vault at an RAF base.

He likens the alleged cover-up to the U.S. government's veil of secrecy surrounding an alien crash landing in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.

In the book, seen by the Sun, he writes: 'It is at RAF Fylingdales that we have Britain's Roswell moment on big cats.

'Retired staff apparently talked about a "body on the table" and a witness outside the base reported a puma-like creature being trundled off in the scoop-arm of a tractor.'

A local paper from the area reported in June 2004 that a large cat 'the length of a sheep' was killed on the Pickering to Whitby road near to the base.

Mark Fraser, who investigates big cat sightings as part of the Big Cats In Britain group, told the Sun such a body was the 'Holy Grail' of his investigations.

'If the MoD have a body, we'd like to know about it,' he told the paper.
A series of photos taken in Cornwall purport to show the Beast of Bodmin Moor.

A big cat sighting near a naval base in Scotland - one of the many fearsome beasts said to be roaming the countryside

Farmers have claimed that they lost sheep to a large animal roaming the area and in 1998, video footage was released showing what appeared to be a black animal resembling a wild cat.

And last year, a panther-like creature was photographed near a naval base in Scotland.

In 1983, Exmoor came to national attention after 100 sheep were mauled and killed near South Molton.

Blurred photographs and a succession of intriguing big cat sightings followed, but no creature was ever caught.

The government's Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) insists the claims are unsubstantiated.


source:dailymail