Portland, Maine (Wireless Flash 6-8-2007) Earlier this week a mysterious beast killed 29 sheep in Lincoln County, Maine, but oddly enough the animal didn’t eat any lamb chops.
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, author of “Mysterious America” (Paraview Pocket Books), says the answer to the attack might be found in black panthers, who aren’t indigenous to North America, but could be making a comeback and preying on unexpecting livestock.
Coleman says there have been recent sightings of the dangerous cougars in Illinois, Ohio, and New England, and reports that sheriffs and park rangers have witnessed the panthers’ true dark sides first hand.
As Coleman puts it, “Black panthers tend to kill lots of animals on rampages.”
Earlier report:
Toronto Sun, Friday, June 8, 2007 - Most of his flock is kept safe on remote islands, just off the rugged New England coast. But many of the rest, over the past week, have been slaughtered by a mysterious and vicious killer.
If this were most parts of rural North America, dead livestock would just be part of the cycle of life. But in Maine — where Stephen King-approved dark imagery covers every unexplained and bloody happening — the twin mass killings of Straw’s flock is quickly becoming the stuff of legend and speculation.
Last Sunday [June 3, 2007], the frustrated herder stacked the carcasses of more than a dozen dead sheep along the road near a Wiscasset, Maine, ranch. Straw’s animals had been allowed to graze and keep the grass trimmed and fertilized for a free stay on a local man’s spread.Things were largely peaceful on the coastal land, until last weekend’s reckoning.Sunday morning, 14 animals were found bitten to death — the killer or killers making their way over a one-metre-high electric fence.Local officials quickly ruled out coyotes, because only a couple of the bodies showed signs of being eaten.They were simply chewed up and left.Straw believes domestic dogs attacked at night, though no one heard or saw the predators.”I wanted to show people what happened — that if it was their dog, to lock them up — so I put the (bodies) along the road,” the 52-year-old rancher explains, on the phone from his home in Newcastle.Sunday morning’s attack brought back memories of finding 17 of his sheep dead in 2004. What animals were responsible then is still a mystery.If the latest attack was hard to stomach, the fact that whatever it was that killed the 15 came back the next night to finish the terrible job has made Straw livid.By Monday morning [June 4, 2007], another 14 sheep were found slaughtered.The survivors of Sunday’s attack were checked on into the night, but some time after 1 a.m. on Monday, almost all were taken down in the same gruesome way as their brothers and sisters. Other than the sheep who are on the islands, only two members of the original flock survive.Locals found the dead animals — including many pregnant ewes — slaughtered throughout their neighbourhood.Hair samples were taken from the scene, but no results have come back.The local department of inland fisheries and wildlife also thinks a group of dogs is likely responsible — memories of Stephen King’s famous Cujo, where an average Maine pet becomes a blood-thirsty killer.Others have even more novel ideas. Among the fraternity of those who believe the state harbours more than its share of secrets and unique beasts, some are pointing an accusing finger at a breed of a ghostlike black panther rumoured for years to be living and hunting in solitude.”Local officials always quickly … assume it’s dogs,” says Loren Coleman, a Portland, Maine, an author and North America’s most recognized “cryptozoologist,” who for years has tracked animals which are only hypothesized to exist.The fact that these were large kills may suggest something more alarming, he adds.”They weren’t eaten; they were simply killed (for fun).”
Internet chat sites and specialized “crypto” web sites have been closely following the story. For them, the phantom black panther is an obvious suspect, having been spotted around livestock kills in past years.
They’re not so sure one of the big cats will ever be caught. But rancher Straw, cursing dogs for bringing his meek and mild animals down, is convinced the truth is out there — likely asleep on someone’s living-room carpet.”I think we’ll get the animal responsible. I think we’ll find out what killed them.”
Black Panthers in Maine?
Mysterious Sheep Kills in Maine
