Published: Monday, 8th June, 2009 2:00pm

Sheep 'were killed by big cat'

by Russell Steele

EXPERT: Sandy Smith

INVERCLYDE"S "big cat" could be responsible for a savage attack on two sheep found dead along The Cut, says an expert.

Two boys walking the popular track last week were left shocked when they discovered the carcasses of two sheep which had been badly savaged.

They contacted the Tele after seeing one of the animals had been torn to pieces, believing the infamous big cat could be responsible.

One of the sheep found by local lads Aidan McIver, 11, and Lawrence Gregory, 12 - had its internal organs missing and its ribcage exposed. Its eyes were missing and there was wool strewn all around.

Kilmacolm man Sandy Smith, who has spent years searching for the leopard-style animals following a series of sightings reported as far apart as Kilmacolm and Inverkip, does not rule out that the creature could have struck again.

Sandy, pictured right, told the Tele: 'The sheep sound as if they"ve been ripped apart.

'To big cats, the animal"s intestines are like caviar and they would go for that first.

'On the other hand, it could have been a fox which got the sheep and then crows could have pecked out the poor thing"s eyeballs.

'We haven"t had a sighting of the Inverclyde cat for a while now.'

Sandy"s interest in big cats was sparked a few years ago when he was driving home and saw a huge leopard-style animal climbing a tree at the roadside.

He said: 'It was so big it looked like a child climbing it at first.

'I started researching it and got to know a big cat hunter from England and investigated sightings with trigger cameras and then people reported a handful of strong sightings here to me.

'It"s difficult to say if these sheep have been attacked by a big cat because foxes are predators and could have done it.

'It could be a lot of things - but you can"t say it defintely wasn"t a big cat.'

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