BBC Radio 4 just covered the Bodmin Panther - thoughts?

Right, so I was listening to the Today programme this morning (caught it on iPlayer during breakfast) and they did a whole segment on big cat sightings in Cornwall. They interviewed some zoologist who basically said 'escapees from private collections' and called the whole thing 'folklore with a modern twist.'

Has anyone here actually seen the panther? I'm not asking to be difficult, but the BBC piece made it sound like we're all a bit mad. They didn't even mention the livestock kills from the 80s properly. Pretty poor journalism if you ask me.

Anyway, would be keen to hear from Cornish members. Did they contact any of you lot?

The BBC piece was a complete hatchet job. I listened too and they cherry-picked everything. The zoologist they had on was from some London university who's probably never set foot in Cornwall. Classic media thing - find the most dismissive expert possible and ignore everyone else.

I saw something in 1994 near Liskeard. Black, massive, definitely not a dog. But people didn't believe me then and they won't now.

Escapees from private collections is actually the most sensible explanation though, innit? Not folklore, not aliens, just people being irresponsible pet owners in the 70s. The BBC wasn't wrong about that bit.

Still doesn't explain all the sightings, but let's not pretend every big cat report is genuine either.

They contacted me! I gave them an interview but obviously they used about 30 seconds of a 45-minute chat. The bits where I talked about the livestock evidence got cut. Typical.

But honestly, the more interesting thing is that their own research team found three separate unexplained predator attacks in the MOD files from the late 80s. They mentioned it once, very quietly, then moved on.

The real scandal is they didn't mention Rendlesham Forest comparisons at all. Both cases, you get official dismissal, media mockery, but then years of credible witness testimony that doesn't go away. Pattern recognition, mate. Pattern recognition.