The Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have stepped up their hunt for an animal they believe to be a puma, after a large animal attacked and killed a pedigree ram on a farm near Dervock, Co Antrim, yesterday.
The USPCA and police said farmers should have no hesitation in shooting the animal, although they believe it is not a serious danger to people.
Mr Stephen Philpott of the USPCA said there were now five puma-type animals roaming around Northern Ireland. In recent weeks, there were sightings of wild cats in Tyrone, Derry and Antrim, and, last week, a newborn calf was killed near Cookstown, Co Tyrone. Mr Philpott said he was certain that a wild cat other than the Antrim puma was responsible.
He warned that the Antrim puma could become a menace to livestock, now that it had attacked the ram belonging to Dervock farmer Mr Robert Calvin.
Mr Philpott said that the puma ate more than a stone of meat from the ram's flank. He believes the animal escaped - or was released - in the past three weeks.
He urged the PSNI to use its spotter plane and heat-seeking equipment to trace the puma.
"Previously, it was hand-reared on fowl and rabbits, but now that it has made the transition to warm meat, its natural instincts have been awakened and that is a worry to farmers," he told The Irish Times yesterday evening, after a day trying to trace the wild cat in Co Antrim.
He said there was a growing problem of exotic animals on the loose in the North. This resulted from the absence of a dangerous wild animals Act in Northern Ireland.
"The fact is I have to pay a £5 licence to keep a poodle, but I can have a tiger or a puma and be answerable to nobody."
This was posing a major headache for the USPCA, he added. "At the moment, we have six tigers, five lions, three wolves, a leopard and any amount of Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs which have been released or escaped. It's time we had a dangerous wild animals Act," said Mr Philpott.