Jennie Dennett
The Westmoreland Gazette
25 Market
Street,
Ulverston,
Cumbria
LA12 7LR
|
Our ref EWD 487
Delay
Date 20th
May 2005
|
Dear Ms Dennett,
Thank you for your request for information about sightings of big
non-native cats in the UK.
Your request has been considered under the Environmental Information
Regulations (EIR) 2004 and following careful consideration, I can now inform
you that we have decided that some of the information you have requested will
be disclosed and some withheld.
It may firstly be useful if I explained some of the background to the
issue of big cats. There is no formal process for the recording of big non-native
cat sightings. Defra’s Rural Development Service (RDS) National Wildlife
Management Team does investigate claims of big cat sightings, but only in cases
where there is a potential risk to livestock. Any instance where there is a
potential risk to the public is a matter for the Home Office and the Police.
Any sightings reported by a member of the public to the RDS
since mid-2001 have been recorded, however it is important to note
that the Team covers England
only. Prior to this, a member of the Team kept a personal record of sightings
gleaned from newspaper cuttings, etc. This information is no longer available,
but some of it was published and may be available from public libraries. I’m
afraid that we do not hold copies of these two reports.:
Baker, S.J. (1990).
Escaped exotic mammals in Britain.
Mammal Review, 20, 75-96.
Baker, S.J. (1990). Escaped exotic mammals in Britain. Mammalaction (Newsletter
of the Mammal Society Youth Group), 48, 3-4
In 1995 the (then
MAFF) wildlife team conducted an investigation into reports of large exotic
cats in the Bodmin area of Cornwall.
A report of this investigation was published as follows:
I am afraid that we will not release details of individual sightings as
we believe that this data falls under exception 12(4)(d) of the Environmental
Information Regulations in that the information is in the course of completion.
We intend to publish the data we have collected in relation to the dates,
numbers and summary locations of exotic sightings within the next 3
months. In making this decision we have carefully considered the public
interest test and have balanced the need for disclosure against the need to
withhold the data. We believe that it is reasonable for us to withhold the data
whilst we collate and prepare it for publication.
However, I can inform you that since RDS began recording sightings
reported by the public (circa April 2001 to 31 March 2005) there have been
28 unconfirmed big cat sightings recorded for England. None of these sightings
were from Cumbria.
Defra holds no physical evidence that big non-native cats are living in
the wild in Cumbria or
elsewhere in the UK.
Release of big cats into the wild is prohibited under the Wildlife and
Countryside Act 1981 and possession of these species is regulated under the
Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976. If there is believed to be a public safety
issue, for example from an escaped big cat, then this is a matter for the
Police. RDS do have a record of instances of known escapes of big cats from
1977. I have attached a copy of this table for information.
I do not know whether the Central Science Laboratory or the Veterinary
Laboratories Agency hold any data regarding big cats. In order for me to
contact them and fully explore whether they hold such data, I regret that we
must extend the time limit for responding by 20 days. I hope to let you have a
response on this particular part of your enquiry by 16 June, and will keep you
informed of any further delay. In the meantime I hope that you will find the
attached information useful.
If you are unhappy with the way the authority has handled your request,
you may ask for an internal review. Please contact Lewis Baker, Head of Defra’s Access to
Information Unit at, Area1E West block 3-8 Whitehall Place London
SW1A 2HH who will arrange an internal review of your
case.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information
Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
If you have any
queries about this letter please contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Species Policy Adviser
Fax 0117 372
8182
Email
simon.r.harding@defra.gsi.gov.uk
I like the start of the letter: "... some of the information you have requested will be disclosed and some withheld." Well, start as you mean to go on.
Firstly, the "Beast of Bodmin" investigation was flawed from the very start. Those involved would only listen
to those it decided it wanted to talk to: those whose cases could be
easily dismissed or a little official scorn poured over the claims.
I spoke to five people who requested
to submit evidence in the form of audio recordings which involved a
quite clear call that someone at the BBC Natural History Unit (when I
worked with them) said straight away "Oh,that's a leopard roar where was
it from -" at this point he held up his hand and said "That sounds like
sheep in the background...and a fox bark?" Then I told him where it
was recorded! There were other calls and two had the recordists
talking as they lent out of windows to record what was going on: "That's
up by the paddock...."/ "****** it's going up toward the sheep sheds!"
and some other choice words as a huge roar was recorded. The audio clips "might have been peacocks or foxes" I'd hate to meet a Bodmin 'fox' or 'peacock' at night!
"Inadmissable" the 'investigation'
panel said. A professional cat tracker from Africa who had lived on
Bodmin wanted to give evidence as he had seen the tracks and made casts
but was dismissed out of hand. I was told later about a comment "From
Africa, tracked leopards and has casts? Could have faked them" (by which
they meant he could have had them with him since Africa).
"We
intend to publish the data we have collected in relation to the dates,
numbers and summary locations of exotic sightings within the next 3
months. In making this decision we have carefully considered the public
interest test and have balanced the need for disclosure against the need
to withhold the data. We believe that it is reasonable for us to
withhold the data whilst we collate and prepare it for publication."
Okay, where is the report? In fact the policy was that there may be large cats but just don't tell anyone.
So long as livestock are not in danger and a cat presents no clear danger to members of the public...nothing "to do with us".
Let's shed some light here.
During 1996 I visited the DEFRA
offices in Bristol to meet the man who would deal with such reports. He
explained that he had no knowledge of cats "but I can call on experts"
-someone just said to him one day "Here. You can answer any calls on
big cats" and that was it. My visit was the subject of some confusion
-but not on my part. I had my ID and some Home Office and other papers
in a clear folder and the person at reception shot off and in a couple
minutes "the man" was there to greet me -this story and the man's name
is known amongst serious naturalists.
I was ushered into an office and I
took some plaster casts out of my bag and I was asked "What made those?
Was it a dog?" I said no and highlighted the "pointers" on the tracks
"Puma" I said. I was then told to "look at these" and a large drawer
was pulled open that contained plaster casts. I pointed to one set
"Lynx" I said and he said "So I've been told" and I noted leopard and
puma tracks plus, I think, jungle cat.
I then said that we needed to work a
lot closer to sort out some kind of plan. "Absolutely, I'mlost with this
-which department at the Home Office are you in?" I looked at him and
asked why he thought I was with the Home Office? Apparently, the person
at reception had said so. "No. No, that's incorrect" I said showing my
ID and saying "You'll find me listed as a police advisor-"
"No. No. You shouldn't be here. You have to leave now!" said "Mr Panic" and so he escorted me back out.
So, yes, MAFF/DEFRA had pretty good evidence but they were NOT investigating what was locked up at DEFRA in Bristol -inadmissable.
I also have a signed affidavit from
a gentleman living in the North of England on a farm. Educated, knows
what he's talking about and liaised with localpolice about a panther
that walked through the courtyard regularly. A trap was set up and the
idea was to trap the cat and get it to a wildlife park or zoo where it
could be housed and tests run. The cat was trapped and DEFRA was
contacted and very quickly an unmarked small white van turned up,
driven by a vet. The witness is very precise about what happened and
once the cat was tranquilised the vet told him that it was indeed a
leopard but they'd take care of it.
The witness was asked to help the vet
carry the cat from the cage and put it in the back of the van which he
did but he was puzzled. "But the cage is too big and how are you going
to get it into another?" was the question. He told me that he broke
into a cold sweat when the vet responded "It's dead not tranquilised".
Very unhappy he telephoned DEFRA who
said they had no idea what he was talking about so he contacted the
police. They had absolutely no doubt the story was true but were told
"its policy". End of story.
The witness was "gutted". However,
about a week later the police contacted me "There's another one of those
cats in the field by his property -how many are there?" I spoke to the
witness who told me he was walking and wondered whose black dog was
moving through the field nearby...then the cat emerged and ran off. He
was genuinely shocked. I asked what he intended to do? "Nothing. They
haven't caused a problem and I'm not having another one killed here".
I gave a copy of the affidavit to three different people and each deposited the copy in their bank. Mine is locked away safely in a bank.
I have a number of examples of this
type of thing -all documented (and when DEFRA found me to be a nuisance
and kept finding a fault in every renewal of my Partners Against
Wildlife Crime submission (14 times it was corrected and each time "oh,
this will need doing again" -despite two very senior police officers
being my guarantors). When DEFRA told me "We can always go to court
and have material seized" the data was distributed!
The statement that: "Defra holds no physical evidence that big non-native cats are living in the wild in Cumbria or elsewhere in the UK"
is, or was, a lie. I guess a lot gets destroyed but in the UK, as I
found in other work, "not everything has a paper trailor internet
presence"
Small and largish cats
are out there and despite all the lies you find on the internet, no
wild living wild cat species has attacked a human being -and these cats
have been out there since at least the 18th century.
The problem with these things is that they are full of equations and
put forward in papers to justify big university fees and grants. And you
also have to look at HOW they think we'll make contact.