To me there are many parallels between the Fox Study work and the exotic cats work. Firstly, there is widespread hoaxing as well as mis-reporting. In many cases the mis-reporting is down to sheer sillyness at best and stupidity at worst.
A photo of a black blob in a field half a mile away is very likely a horse or cow or...anything. It cannot be used to back up hysterical claims of "big cats at large" and the persons involved being there to "safeguard the community". The best way that they can safeguard the community would be to shut up and jump over to the UFO subject.
When there was the opportunity for DNA testing alleged "big cat" samples in the 1990s we saw this community of half wits at work and they totally destroyed any possibility of a university again giving over lab time to the subject.
"Possible big cat hairs found on wire around a field" -they were obviously not cat hair but the University stood by their promise to analyse all samples. It was cow hair. Why did the submittees think this was cat hair? "A cat was seen in the area a few weeks before" and what was in the field itself? "Cows". More hair samples: sheep. What was in the field the samples were collected from? Sheep. Horse DNA....you know the questions asked. We had similar including from a fantasist in Glouycestershire who sent in samples of sheep dung from an area sheep wandered in but oddly no samples from the big black cats" he saw on a daily basis.
I spoke to the lab at least once a week and to be honest their patience was being tested.
I once accidentally sent some hair samples -from my own cat, George- to a top big cat man who analysed lots of anomalous hair sent to him and identified as puma or panther. Going through my desk draw a week after I had sent the samples off I found the actual pack that should have gone. As I had identified the animal involved by that time I contacted the hair man by phone to tell him to waste no him on studying the sample sent. Before I could even explain I was told that he had analysed the hairs and there was no doubt that they were from a lynx though he could not tell whether European or American! I looked at George who was sat on the desk and asked him "Is there something you want to tell me?" He simply responded with a look of disdain.
Photographs of a "big cat" that was killed on the road were widely shown about the community...it was a domestic cat that had been hit by a car.
One thing that became obvious is that 95% of the 'community' had no knowledge of cats or their habits and habitats. Most of the others took what they found in the old EAR Bulletins and what they found online.
When I was consulted by Leicestershire police they asked that the "locat big cat man" not be briefed on sightings. When my name appeared in a couple of local newspapers (and I think I was interviewed on local radio) the "local big cat man" was furious and said that I had absolutely no right to interfere in his area and he had first rights to reports and even wanted details of reports I had received. I was polite (I am always polite) and explained to him that as a naturalist I had been doing this work since 1977 and that he had no "right" to my work though I had intended liaising with him. I decided not to.
On another occasion I was looking at reports in Devon and found so much fakery I decided to leave well alone. Even in 2021 someone in Devon was trying to hoax me (I think 3 times).
I tried cooperating with others in the "big cat" community but I can tell you, having seen what goes on from the inside, "respected forums" were anything but. The 'experts' got things badly wrong but would never allow a correction of facts and the amount of online abuse some respected people got was so bad that twice I had to intervene in their defence (and these were the sort of people that were needed in this field).
One jumped up wannabe documentary maker even decided that because I was not going to cooperate with him he would turn up at my home and hammer on the front door for ten minutes. At that time I was extremely ill but assumed something was wrong only to find the idiot in question who was far from coherent in what he was saying. He left after a neighbour came out to ask if everything was alright (he had been that loud). That night I was contacted as the fool had "exposed me" on a couple of "respected" big cat forums. I checked and found that his expose was of the fact that my home (which he had only viewed from the garden) was not up to the fantasy his mind expected. Oddly, someone did respond with "What's his home got to do with big cats?" Just what I was thinking, The fella is still around touting the Big Cat documentary and using my old, out of data info.
By the mid 1980s most of the old time field naturalists I knew had died off and though I tried to find any that might be involved in looking into "non native cats" I could find none. No one was even apparently interested in other exotics. In the later 1990s I tried to get branches of the British Naturalist Association involved -their upper echelon knew of the cats and had even seen some over the years. :Letters, phone calls and I found all that "members are intereste in are birds and butterflies so its mainly summer activities". They did not even have information on their local badgers.
It wasn't a good time and though I loathed doing so I found myself in the national as well as local regional newspapers and TV and was referred to as "Britain's Big Cat Detective" which is quite embarrassing although the other title proferred was "Big Cat Hunter" -that would have killed any cooperation from people.
Cooperation with official bodies (other than DEFRA who really "disliked" me) was good and it was through two police wildlife crimes officers (PWCO) that I learnt why I was getting so many problems -jealousy. I was told by both men how people claiming to be "big cat experts" had contacted them and when my name was mentioned the vitriol flowed and both officers warned the individuals involved about what they were saying and the ramifications. I was also told how a certain "Big Cat organisation" had tried to get police cooperation but the police had become a tad wary: "Is this group anything to do with you?" I was asked and I responded that it was not and asked why they thought it was? "Well, their press release is literally word-for-word taken from your EAR Bulletin advisory".
After some trespasses by people claiming to work with me as well as a threat to a farmer (I was not privvy to the threat as it never involved me) I released a national advisory stating that absolutely no one was working for me and that if they presented ID cards it was a case of fraud.
This all sounds bad, right? The thing is that all of this is quite literally only 1% of what was going on. When I heard that at least two "big cat" people and the previously mentioned 'documentary maker' had established links with hunt groups that was it. I stopped the Bulletins and no one was going to be getting any cooperation from me.
What I find surprising is the way that the cammo and black uniform making fringe has jumped in and make the subject almost the cousin of the "British Bigfood" groups. Facts are out of the window and they cannot identify a calf, a boar or any other mundane animal as anything but a "big cat" and I have to say that in the last 15 years I have seen no credible publicised reports emerge.
I have no doubt that genuine sightings are taking place but are simply not being reported (for obvious reasons). I would always encourage genuine witnesses to contact me by email and I maintain absolute confidentiality
Therefore if yyou have seen a large unidentified cat and especially if on a regular bais please get in touch. Use the heading "cat"
blacktowercg@hotmail.com
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