British Subliminal Fear of Big Cats

Judging by some of the calls to the police the British have a subliminal fear of big cats. Perhaps it is in all of us, anywhere, an emotion going back to caveman times when big cats were genuinely a life threatening hazard to people.

Brits can't judge the size of animals at a distance especially when terrified!

Cheshire in the north of England has one of the highest rates of phone calls about big cats:

• report of an escaped lion living in their garden!
• tiger wandering along the banks of the river Dee in Chester (cat described as "three times as big as a cat, but fatter, stripy with a black ringed tail and black tip). This must have been a large mackerel tabby domestic cat!
• a lynx killing 10 sheep, 2 cats, a lamb, attacked chickens in a coop - paw prints as big as a person's hand.
• large wild cat prowling around the Tarporley town center.
• motorist sees a tiger prowling along the M56 (a motorway or freeway) reported on Twitter.
• lion on the loose in Chester city in 2013.
• whilst walking close to the river Dee a caller spotted a tiger who walked through a gate, looked at the caller and "sidled" off into nearby bushes!
• a cat the size of a panther outside the window.
• one caller saw a cat the size of a labrador (a popular comparison) prowling over a golf course. He probably did see a labrador! He insisted it was not a dog, however.
• a cyclist was stopped by a person covered in blood who said he had been attacked by a lion. Sounds like a case of the magic mushrooms.

Nine sightings of big cats were reported April 2011-2014.