A WOMAN caller who said her Doberman dog had been clawed along both sides from head to tail has made Danny Nineham sure a big cat roams the Newent, May Hill and Longhope area.
"I am convinced it is a big cat, probably a leopard," said Mr Nineham. "I think the same animal that attacked the dog in the Longhope area quite recently."
The woman caller contacted the Review after reading our story a fortnight ago of scrapings and dung found near Mitcheldean.
She did not want her name or the location of her home revealed, other than that it was in the Longhope area, because it was quite lonely and remote and she felt vulnerable.
But she told the Review and Mr Nineham that her large Doberman dog had suffered terrible injuries after leaping a five-bar gate in pursuit of something in the dark.
This was roughly a year ago, and in the morning they had found dead sheep in the field. Now, once again, sheep had been killed in the field.
"There were claw marks in her side, terrible wounds and such a lot of blood," said the woman.
Mr Nineham, who spent several hours with the woman and her son, said he had examined the dog and it had scratches that could only have been made by a large cat.
"The rips are large and they go right from the shoulders to the flanks, on both sides. I saw the sheep too and the pattern was the same, a neck bite," he said.
Hair collected at the previous kills had been examined and it closely matched leopard hair, he said, although he had yet to see results of DNA tests to confirm this.
Mr Nineham, who is hoping to track and capture one of the big cats alive, can be contacted on 01594 844182.