Unfortunately the animal observed by Charlotte Dawson and her mother Bev near Whitehaven in Cumbria, and photographed by them, does not "prove the stories true". The 'big cat' that apparently "rips the heads off local sheep", referred to by the media as "the Beast of Cumbria", might well exist, but the photographs taken and published in The Daily Star are undoubtedly those of a domestic cat Felis catus.
According to Charlotte (31), the mystery animal they witnessed in a field from their car, was at least three times the dimensions of her own pet cat, which she claims to be larger than the average moggie; but unfortunately the images published do not show any comparable objects nearby that we can use to determine the animals dimensions. However, going by the general outline of the animal, and its undeniably gracile features, it is clear this is not a true big cat. But just how large was it? I personally believe that maybe 15 - 20% of British reports refer to outsized domestics; the question really is how large can domestic cat breeds (feral or otherwise) get?
The average human male in Britain is 5 ft 9 inches tall, and a tall individual is roughly, say, 6 ft 2 inches tall; yet the tallest human alive today is a colossal 9 ft 9 inches (Sultan Kosen from Turkey); can we can expect a similar ratio in cat forms?
If the average domestic cat is 46 cm in length (from nose to tail tip), and a large cat is approximately 60 cm, and the largest domestic cat breed (a Maine coon) averages 101 cm (the largest Maine coon; a tom named Leo was a massive 121.92 cm long) it is conceivable that some British reports do refer to excessively large domestics (possibly large crossbreeds or individuals displaying gigantism) at least three times the dimensions of the average sized domestic cat.
There is nothing in the photographs to indicate Charlotte Dawson and her mother are being untruthful (however there is also nothing to indicate they were accurate in their estimations either). They seem to generally believe the cat they witnessed from their car was much larger than expected, leading them to suppose this animal was the famed “Beast of Cumbria”.
Although it is extremely difficult to estimate the size of an object with no frame of reference, we might assume that at the time, when the animal was witnessed, there was indeed something nearby that led them to believe the cat was quite large, it just wasn’t clear in the published photographs.
Whether or not this is the so called “beast”, this animal photographed is very likely a large domestic cat.
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