A pet owner hunting for a lost dog fears it could have been savaged in a brutal attack – by two wild pumas. Sam Hammond was looking for her friend's black Labrador cross Bea Bea when she spotted the two cat-like beasts running through a field. She said she heard a yelping 15 minutes after the sighting and fears the dog may have been attacked by the cats. The dog has still not been found.
Sam reported the sighting in Red Lodge to the police the same day and is convinced the mystery animals were puma cubs. She said: "I was searching for my friend's dog and thought I'll just try this field where there was a farmer. "I got halfway across and turned around and the farmer had left. I started walking back and I then looked to my left and saw these two cats at the edge of the field. The cats were focusing on where they were walking. I think they were on the scent of something. I just ran and just thought I need to get as far away as possible. I was really freaked out. There were two of them. "I'm 100 per cent certain there were two and 100 per cent that they were big cats. I am so shaken up by it, even when I talk about it now."
Sam met up with her friend and told her what happened. But when they continued their search, they heard a dog bark and then "a dog cry out in pain". And it is not the first time Sam has spotted a big cat in Suffolk. In 1996 she believes she spotted a black panther near Long Melford in Suffolk and later on found a "massive footprint" in the village. Sam said: "I never thought I'd see anything like it again. The fact I saw two cats when I have already seen one just scared me. The fact I saw two this time has really affected me because I was in the middle of a field with them. They could have got me in a second."
Suffolk Police have confirmed they have received a report of the sighting of the cats on November 12. A spokeswoman from the force said: "It is rare that we receive these types of calls in the county, but if someone does believe they have seen a big cat they can contact police. "If there is immediate danger we will respond but often the sighting will be referred to other agencies such as the RSPCA."
The incident comes two months after a man reported a big cat sighting in Mildenhall Woods, just three miles from the spot where Sam says she saw them in Red Lodge.
A large "cat like" creature was spotted through trees in Thetford Road in Mildenhall on September 1, and it was also reported that a "deer carcass stripped to the bone" was found not far from the same spot of the last sighting in Mildenhall Woods just a few days previously.
John Berrett of Barton Mills spotted the cat and said he had "no doubt" that it was a wild creature, adding that in his 70 years, he had only seen something like that "on TV or in the zoo".
Sam Hammond and Bea Bea's owner are still hoping that the dog is alive and will continue their search for Bea Bea around the local area.
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