I have been reading the 'experienced' opinion of British "big cat" 'experts' that since the 1976 mass release date (when the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act came "into force" but few did anything about it officially.
All the DWAA 1976 meant was that you had to apply to local licensing authorities who would have someone check that you kept whichever animal safely and securely and in suitable cages that were not cramped.
Releases were down to people who just did not want to bother with a licence or pay to set up secure facilities. That was it. The DWAA 1976 did NOT have keepers running around in a panic.
Firstly the person keeping the animal had to report that they had it in captivity and apply for a licence. Or someone had to inform on that person keeping the DWAA 1976 covered animal. The licensing authority would check everything was safe and secure and that was it. There was no such thing as checking on breeding of said animals.
I used to know a few people who kept "exotics" under licence and I asked them how things worked if there were pairs that might breed. I was told by them, and later others, that this was no problem.
Once a year you would get a letter from the licensing authority stating when an inspection for licence renewal would happen. If you had "Two puma. Male and Female" on the licence then the inspector (mainly with no knowledge of wildlife) would call around and tick off "One male. One Female". Cage secure and suitable? Yes. Tick. There is your inspection and renewed licence.
I asked if this system wasn't just a little bit open to abuse? "Of course it is" I was told. One person, JG, noted that he was at a friends on the day of such an inspection. A female puma had obviously had cubs and the signs "were like a flashing neon light" but the inspector called. No time for a cuppa just looked at the cage and made sure it was secure and counted two cats. A few pleasantries and he was gone.
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"What happens if someone is breeding intentionally or unintentionally is that they receive a letter telling them about the inspection visit date and any cubs are bundled off to a friend's and brought back after inspection. One lad had his heavily pregnant female carted off to his pal's and his pal's unpregnant female put into the about to be inspected cage -separate from the male for convenience of the inspector."
This meant that two cats kept under licence had four young so 6 would need to be licenced and the facilities updated expensively. Now there were four cubs to sell on and if no one was buying.... "There are secluded areas with lots of deer and rabbits so the cats would have plenty to eat and avoid people.
I put this to licensing officers and also to MAFF/DEFRA and was told (at the time I was a little shocked) "If the animals the keeper has comply with what is on the licence at the time of the inspection no offence has been committed". I lao found that MAFF/DEFRA and its list of "escaped exotics" bore no resemblance to reality because only escapees that they were officially told about were included -it made things seem so under control.
I knew of two lynx and another cat that were all un-licenced but on private farms. I told one licensing authority "If I gave you those addresses what action would you take?" I was told that it would be a rumour with no facts to back it up but depending on circumstances they might send a letter to the person alleged to be keeping the animal to ask whether the information was correct and try -try- to arrange and inspection visit. Even if the person said "Yeah, pop along!" the animal in question could be moved. There was a good network of breeders.
Big problem was that I could not pass on such information as I was working with UK police forces and under the Data Protection Act so even if I went against my promise of confidentiality (which I never did) my hands were tied.
But the "written in stone" myth of 1976 being the date for mass releases around the UK is just that. There were escapes after that such as one (a panther) in Essex in 1983 that was never officially reported. Today, despite everything the Exotic Animals Register, RSPCA and other animal charities did to tighten up the laws we have seen the laws and regulations literally thrown out.
All sorts of formerly exotic birds, reptiles and amphibians, Mammals from porcupine, Meerkats, Bush dog (!) -it goes on and on- are being sighted in the countryside and towns. Everything is done via "secure mobile app" so no sales or other transactions can be seen and we might as well not have any regulations.
The "big cat" people are claiming that based on 1976 as the release date for all the cats we would now be in the 7th or 8th generation.
In the wild a puma can live 8-13 years dependent on many factors. So if we look at a pair being released in 1976 and each living to around 8 years old we would be just coming up to 6+ generations and if the cats lived to 12-13 years of age then (1976 to 2025) we would be on generation 3.5.
We have no idea about cat (any sp.) life span in the UK since MAFF and DEFRA both prevented radio collaring to take place. We know what seem to clearly be puma have been observed dead on roads and there are things such as disease and so on to consider. The other problem is that there are very clearly (sighted buy a senior zoologist and others at close quarters) black puma and I need to point out that most puma brought to the UK in the 19th century were from Central/South America were melanism is known). So "I saw a panther!" could well be a puma but that is a long discussion in itself.
In Wales we know that the male puma, Sadrwn was known as "The Beast of (insert any number of areas) and it seems from anecdotal evidence that he had more than one female. Gwladus the female was active in the early to late 1990s and in the late 1990s had three cubs that were both observed as well as kills identifying their presence. Those offspring would have been 10-11 years old by 2007. They would have had their own territories and bred(?). I know there are still puma in that area so we would be on generation 4 or 5?
There were absolutely no rules or regulations on keeping any exotic animal up until 1976. There is a long list of large black cat sightings throughout history including Bungay, Suffolk, Leicestershire and even of escapes -some marked by local monuments. Certainly lynx have been reported continuously throughout history which led to speculation that some survived after supposed extinction. But there has been no period when lynx have not been reported. Note that William Cobbett recalled in his Rural Rides how, as a boy in the 1760s, he had seen a cat "as big as a middle-sized Spaniel dog" climb into a hollow elm tree in the grounds of the ruined Waverley Abbey near Farnham in Surrey. Later, in New Brunswick, he saw a "lucifee" (Canada lynx) "and it seemed to me to be just such a cat as I had seen at Waverley.
I was given a very accurate description of a panther sighted at close quarters by a post delivery woman during World War 2 in Suffolk. When I explained that it was a perfect description of a panther she laughed and told me that we don't have them in England -it was Old Shuck (a supernatural black hound) !
In the 1840s a woman walking home one night also had a panther accompany her along a road until it leapt across a stream. Explanation? Well, the local undertaker was quite certain, as were others: a coffin containing a recently deceased local had been taken along that road and at one point the coffin was dropped "head first" and that is how the "spirit" escaped.
Travelling menageries were prone to animal escapes as the cages were the flimsiest and cheapest (important to showmen that) they could make and almost unbelievably a common cage design had the door opening inward and outward!
In the 1990s I had three conversations with people in parts of England regarding recent puma sightings. I used to offer advice on safety precautions to take in case they stumbled upon such a cat and on each occasion I was stopped and told that they knew all that as they had been told by their mothers. I asked and assumed that the mothers had worked in wildlife or at zoos. Nope. The mothers had been told by their mothers the precautions to take and I had to stop each conversation to get the facts clear. Yes, great grandmother, grand mother, Mother and then daughter were all told precautions to take and it meant that in each case cat activity in an area could be traced back to at least the 1920s: no one knew of who tld the great grandmothers.
That all seemed odd but then I looked at the maps and the accurate and detailed recorded sightings and each area did indeed have a history or were located very close to areas with long cat activity. These sightings continue into the 21st century but are rarely publicised and I was only told in confidence. Oddly, in one case, a woman reported sightings of large cats on her farm and that she always took a pitchfork with her "in case" when walking the road into town.
About a month after talking to the woman I had another report from the village from someone who did not want me to tell people who she was. When asked for the nearest landmark to the sighting I was told "It's near an old farm. If you ask people for the farm with the woman who always carries a pitchfork they'll point you in the right direction" so I asked if she knew the woman's name or whether there had been other sightings. Response: "No idea as I am new her but I see the old lady with her pitchfork walking around.
To add to this was a report that came in about three months after where a driver said he almost ran into a woman carrying a pitchfork walking out from a farm and just after saw a very large grey cat. I asked whether the village was ------ and the driver responded with "Yes. That's it. Did someone else see it after me?" I just said "yes" as it made him feel less mad.
Even to this day the location of the farm has never been disclosed and that means, based on this being back in the 1990s, that the area has gotten to at least a 3rd generation. The old lady told me that there had always been "people talking about seeing these large cats, Always thought it was a load of rubbish!" In her case she had turned a corner in the road just as a large grey cat did likewise. Both stared at each other for a second before both turning and running off. Having seen three cats on one occasion she turned to carrying the pitchfork.
If you look at wildlife parks you almost always find included a pair of lynx, a pair of puma as well as a pair of ('extremely rare') panthers along with the false Scottish wild cat. Ask how and where these places get all of their cats and especially panthers as they do not just appear.
It seems that throughout history, whether "Black Annis" or "Black cat of Bungay" the lack of open records -or any records really- has made the presence of former exotics in the UK a secret and a secret that continues to this day as newspapers and media either play up the "big cats roaming Britain" menace or joke about the "silly season" stories.
I would point out that private menageries amongst the "nobility" who followed the fashion set by royalty even back in the 10th/11th centuries all tended to have cats and other exotics. Those private menageries disappeared in history but look at old stately homes and they are always near the centre of large cat sightings.
Coincidence?
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