CARL WRITES: 18/1/19 - Porthleven, Cornwall

Read the original story here.

I think if this was a genuine big cat attack the encounter would have been far worse for Mr Wild than the near miss he describes. Mathew Wild claims that while visiting his girlfriend in Porthleven, Cornwall, they both witnessed a large panther-like animal trying to get in through an open window, which then surprise attacked Mr Wild when he thought the animal had gone and tried to close the window. 

“It was trying to get through the window. I thought it had gone and went to shut the window and it went to get me... It grabbed my hand through the window. I used to work with animals and this thing was like nothing I’d ever seen. It was worse than anything on telly.” – Mathew Wild. 

Mr Wild’s report clearly states that the animal, whatever it was, actually had hold of him with it’s claws and presumably also with it’s jaws, and that he managed to free his hand from of the creatures grip and safely close the window. If this had been a leopard attack in Africa, does it sound like the kind of encounter that wouldn’t result in severe injuries? I think not! 

“It was very intent on getting in... It was lucky the cat didn’t draw blood.” said Mr. Wild. 

He described the beast as looking like a domestic cat crossed with a panther which is something of a biological impossibility and rather ambiguously concluded that if the animal was standing on the floor, it would have reached about six feet. Mr Wild, a 30 year old martial arts enthusiast from Helston, Cornwall, would possibly be capable of freeing his hand from business end of a leopard; especially if the animal was positioned uncomfortably on a ground floor window sill, but I find it very difficult to believe this could be done without receiving some sort of serious injury. 

I expect this report is either a complete fabrication or it was some other animal misidentified as a big cat – a large aggressive domestic cat (maybe another exotic hybrid) springs to mind.