Dog suffered horror wounds after being savaged by a PUMA on country walk, owner claims
Rescue pooch Daisy almost died after 'jungle lion pounced on her' during woodland walk
A DOG nearly died from horrific injuries inflicted in a savage attack by ‘the Beast of Bucks’.
Rescue pooch Daisy was being taken for a walk by owner Carlos Romero, from High Wycombe, in woodland near local beauty spot Tom Burt’s hill when she was attacked by a ‘black panther’.
Terrified Carlos believes his beloved pet was pounced upon by a jungle lion as the area is a hotspot for sightings of big cats. In 2001, experts confirmed prints found on Wycombe Heights Golf Centre were those of a puma. Since then, locals have reported several sightings of a black big cat in the area, leading it to be nicknamed the “Beast of Bucks”.
Carlos was walking Daisy, who is a mixed breed, in the woods when she went off to investigate something in the undergrowth.
Minutes later she howled in pain and came out limping towards her owner with blood gushing from gaping wounds on the side of her body.
Carlos rushed her to the vet for emergency treatment and is now warning other local dog owners to be careful when walking their mutts.
He said: "It must have been a powerful animal to have done this to her.
"I was terrified because the area where we walk is frequented by lots of dog walkers and children.
“If it is a panther, somebody needs to do something about it.
"You can’t leave an animal like that on the loose with children and pets around."
"It is lucky Daisy is a larger dog - a smaller dog that gets caught up in something like that could be dead."
But local vet Adam Maxton, of Temple End Surgery, said it was more likely to be a deer than a panther.
He said: "It is highly unlikely that a panther has caused that. It is more likely to be a deer with antlers."
A spokesman from the British Big Cats Society said the UK has plenty of ideal countryside which is good hunting ground for panthers, cougars, leopards and even lions and tigers because there is lots of woodland for them to hide in and leap out on their prey.
He added that escapees from private collections and small zoos are now living wild and have started families, fuelling the British big cat population.
He said: "Believing in big cats is not like believing in the Loch Ness monster. There is absolutely no doubt that they are out there.
"The most credible reports are from farmers, and those guys know their stuff. We have also had policemen reporting sightings to us. For every report, there are going to be others who don't report it."
It’s the latest of a spate of big cat sightings in recent years with reports of pumas, lions and tigers being spotted across England.
In 2010 it was revealed that there had been more than 100 sightings of exotic and unidentified animals in England since 2005.
Many zoologists think Britain has a large wild population of big cats which have been breeding and forming colonies in remote areas of countryside since the late 1970s, when the Dangerous Wild Animals Act forced owners to dump exotic pets.
Last year a man claimed to have come face-to-face with a ‘puma-like beast’ near the countryside home of the Duchess of Cambridge's parents Michael and Carole Middleton at Bucklebury, Berkshire.
In October 2012 a bushy-tailed, long-necked animal, dubbed the 'Creature of Curridge', two miles from Bucklebury, was spotted by local businessman Don Prater.
And in 2011 young mum Natasha Wysockyj told how she fled in terror after she was 'stalked by a black panther' while out walking with her family in a wood at Pangbourne, a few miles from Bucklebury.
In 2007, Patricia Lewis, of Earley, near Reading, said she saw a panther on the prowl in a wooded valley just outside Pangbourne while Geoff and Sylvia Killgallon, of Caversham, Reading, said they saw it stalking the fields around their home.
A similar creature was also seen in Shinfield and Ashampstead near Reading in December 2007 and in 2005 a long, black cat-like creature dubbed the Beast of Berkshire was seen stalking through the countryside between Tilehurst and Pangbourne.
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