Panther sighting ?

[piker56]

This would be a new one.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070501/NEWS01/70501003/1006

 

[KCB]

where are the pictures?

 

[Sue Gremlin]

It was probably someone's labrador.

 

[GermanG]

I've learned to be a skeptic myself when it comes to sightings and identifications of animals by the general public, but anything's possible. You never know what exotic pet someone may be keeping, and then gets loose or is released. Don't forget the tiger in Jackson a few years back!

But I'm also reminded of the time a few years ago when my son was excited to point out a peacock in our yard. We ran to the window just in time to see a wild turkey strutting back into the woods.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

For a few years I worked on a research farm right outside of New Egypt, and more than once people asked us about the "special zebras" we had in the pastures. They were cattle that had a fistula (basically a rubber plug) in their sides.

Zebras? Where did they get that from looking at a plain old Holstein?

 

[dragoncjo]

I saw the photos on channel six news. It is clearly a black panther, or large black cat. But appears to be a large cat. It is not a mountain lion or a melanistic one. It appears to be a black leopard so clearly it is someone escaped pet or from a zoo. But it looks very cobby and stocky like a leopard.

 

[dragoncjo]

Here is a link
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=animals_oddities&id=5260647

If this was any sort of wild cat nobody could even get close to this thing.

 

[Krloucks]

It was bigfoot.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Oh, geeze, now I feel like such a meanie. I can't get the video to play due to my work's incredibly cumbersome network, but the first pic is pretty convincing.

 

[dragoncjo]

Yeah it is hard to get a frame of reference for size. Is that grass or high weeds. I could just be a big black domesticated cat, but the tail seems to long to be the case.

 

[Bobbleton]

holy CRAP i wish i was there to go photograph that thing.

 

[Boyd]

Here kitty, kitty...

http://kyw1060.com/pages/411983.php?contentType=4&contentId=462182

But a state worker had a sighting of his own, according to Vineland police lieutenant Steve Cleveland:

"He observed what he believed was a large house pet, a cat, in someone’s backyard -- at the same time he received a phone call from one of the residents saying that the panther was in the backyard."

Word is, there may be a Mount Laurel family looking for their pet - a large black cat - named Midnight.

The bottom line? As far as the state and police are concerned, no panther.

 

[jokerman]

That is not a house cat...

 

[LARGO]

This can only go on but so long. There are (6) Chinese food joints in Vineland. It's the cat that should be worried. Look for new specials on one of their menus.

g.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Housecat?

These authorities are some real egg heads if they believe it to be a house cat.

 

[Bobbleton]

how large does a house cat have to be for people to confuse it with a fricking JAGUAR?? aren't they already the size of a domestic cat at birth?

 

[BEHR655]

Housecat?

These authorities are some real egg heads if they believe it to be a house cat.

T'ain't sayin' it is or ain't but I don't see any size cues in those photos to give an indication of size. A 60lb panther would have left tracks that would have been documented.

Steve

 

[Teegate]

When has any of this type of sighting ever been what they think it is?

Guy

 

[mike242424]

Good point Guy.. The bobcat ends up being a house cat. the wolf ends up being a german shepard on the loose.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

I don't see any size cues in those photos to give an indication of size.

Steve, did you notice the tree in the foreground?