Several weeks ago I discussed with several of you the possibility that
some animal(s) were in the woods coming by and killing my dogs and cats.
At first it seemed it might be coyotes but the fact that it was
happening in the daytime seemed to remove that as a possibility.  Then
it seemed that possibly there were feral dogs or neighbor dogs in packs.
Someone, and I apologize for not remembering who, really stressed with
me that we needed to contact the authorities.  There seemed to be no one
we could appeal to that would care or get involved.  As word has
traveled through the neighborhood, more and more pieces of the puzzle
have been found.  One of my neighbors called the Game Warden!  He came
out and brought his supervisor.  The neighbor who called has had the
bark clawed from between 10 - 15 trees in his yard (6 acre yard).  The
bark is completely stripped from 4 feet to 6 feet up the tree.  There
are horizontal claw marks on the trees, not vertical such as you would
expect a cat to make.  The first trees were stripped a year ago, which
coincides with the death of my first dog who had the hide stripped from
his back.  The two game wardens tracked this animal for a mile and a
half from tracks and other signs.  One game warden says it is a cat
larger than a panther (about the size of a tiger) and the other game
warden says it could not be a cat (or a bear) because the claw marks
do not go up and down as would those of a cat or bear.  He thinks it is a
dog. I have not seen the prints, but those trees were not stripped by a
dog.  They took  pictures of the trees and got some samples (maybe
droppings?) and sent them off to be analyzed. The men are supposed to
come back the end of this week.  I have called both of them and told them
I am afraid to go outside.  They said whatever it is has been out there a
year and has not killed a person.  It doesn't seem to matter to them that
it has  killed a large number of animals.  Just this past Friday night a
horse got parallel slash marks across its side.  The vet came out and
said it was done by barbed wire.  This is a neighbor next to the one with
the stripped trees. Their barbed wire is only one strand, yet there are 2
parallel slashes. Dumb horse had to run by the same barbed wire twice
hunching down or stretching up one time.     
They have said that there is nothing native to Mississippi that would do
this.  The speculation is that someone had a wild pet that escaped or
was turned loose.  Another idea is that it could have escaped from a
circus or something similar.  
                              
If any of you have had any experience with this type of thing or if you
have any ideas, please write.
Lora Franklin
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