18 August 2023 , 13:03
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Big Cat expert Carole Baskin, who shot to fame in the Tiger King documentary, has warned people who may spot the animal dubbed the Beast of Smallthorne not to run.
Earlier this week, documentary makers claimed they had found the 'clearest ever' photo of a panther-like creature relaxing in the long grass at Ford Green Nature Reserve in Stoke-on-Trent. And now the Ms Basking, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, believes it is 'very likely' to be a black leopard.
Speaking on Jeremy Kyle Live, Carole told the host: “I think it’s very likely that it is a black leopard because I’ve worked with big cats for the past 40 years and the smartest cats bar none are the leopards and the black leopards just disappear into the landscape. By the time you get your camera up, they’re gone. They can be right in front of you and you wouldn’t even know they were there.”
On the Dangerous Animals Act, which was brought in by the UK government in 1976, Carole said: “You guys in the UK are 50 years smarter than us because you passed yours back in the 70s, and we just passed ours last December so finally it’s illegal to own big cats but people will still break the law. Once those cats get to be adults, they can’t handle them any more.
"And if they’re close to them, if they raised them, they bottle raise them, they don’t want to kill them, they don’t want to admit they broke the law and so they just turn them loose. We get all kinds of reports in the United States about black leopards running loose as well.”
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The Beast of Samllthorne (Dragonfly Films / SWNS)She also reassured viewers that big cats shouldn’t pose a threat to their pets, and issued her advice if anyone came face to face with a large feline. Speaking from Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida, Carole added: “I don’t think people need to worry about their pets. No leopard wants to get into it with a house cat because they recognise that that’s going to be a fight. They don’t want some yappy little dog because that’s more trouble than they need. They have plenty of prey out in the wild they can go after but if you were to find yourself face to face with a cat, don’t run, because then you're going to look like prey.
“So you should try to make yourself look as big as possible. In my case, and I wouldn’t recommend this to people… but in my case if I have to approach one of our cats I will step towards them and show them I am in charge. Even though they’re so much bigger and stronger than I am, they must think there’s something wrong with me for doing that and they’ll kind of like, back off.”
The image of the Beast of Smallthorne is featured as one of several potential pieces of evidence supporting the existence of such cats in the British countryside. They form part of a new award-winning documentary ‘Panthera Britannia Declassified’ released on Amazon Prime by Dragonfly Films.