London, Dec 29 (IANS) Big cats were stalking the British countryside but top government officials tried to cover it up, says a new book.
Hundreds of sightings have been recorded over the years, of the Beast of Bodmin Moor to the Surrey Puma, but the book ‘Big Cats: Facing Britain’s Wild Predators’ now claim that such evidence of them was suppressed by officials from the ministry of defence, according to the Daily Mail.
Author Rick Minter claimed that the body of a ‘fearsome puma-like animal’ was also being kept hidden in a top security vault at the Royal Air Force Fylingdales base.
‘Retired staff apparently talked about a ‘body on the table’ and a witness outside the base reported a puma-like creature being trundled off in the scoop-arm of a tractor,’ the book says.
It was reported in June 2004 that a large cat ‘the length of a sheep’ was killed on a road near the base.
Farmers also claimed they lost sheep to a large animal roaming the area. A video footage was released in 1998 that showed a black animal resembling a wild cat.
In 1983, around 100 sheep were killed near South Molton, and photographs showed a big cat. But no creature was ever caught, the report said.
The department for food and rural affairs says the claims were unsubstantiated.
