A Farmer has spoken of his horror after two of his calves were mauled to death on the outskirts of Bath.
Dave Vowles has about 60 cows and a number of sheep which graze on land at Upper Weston Farm.
But in the past week, two of his new-born calves have been savaged, leaving Mr Vowles upset and mystified.
Now he says he is looking for any information as to what has killed his animals - and he has not ruled out the possibility it could be a big cat.
The first incident happened last week. Mr Vowles, 43, checked the cows last thing at night and they were fine but by the following morning a calf had been killed.
Then on Tuesday night a similar thing happened and Mr Vowles arrived at his fields, off Lansdown Lane, to find another calf dead.
"When I got there the following morning one of them was dead - all that was left was the head, ribs and three legs," he said.
"I have never had anything like this happen in the 15 years I have farmed here."
Shocking pictures of the skinned calves have been taken by the Chronicle, but have been deemed too upsetting to be published in a family newspaper. Both calves were just a day-and-a-half old, but Mr Vowles said they were around the size of a labrador dog.
"Although the calves would have been unsteady on their legs, the mothers would normally protect them," he added.
"I can't believe something like a fox could have done this, it must have been something bigger and maybe a big cat."
Mr Vowles said that until now he had never really believed in the presence of big cats, for the simple reason that he had not seen one with his own eyes.
"I have spoken to a couple of other landowners and they haven't seen anything," he said.
"But there was a man in Weston a couple of years ago who said he had seen a big cat in the area."
Mr Vowles said he was planning to contact the police to see if they could help him in any way.
But yesterday an Avon and Somerset police spokesman said there had been no reported big cat sightings in and around Bath.
There have been sightings in Wiltshire, however, and the Chronicle reported on Wednesday that two off duty police officers had seen what they thought was a panther in fields near Corsham over the Easter weekend.
In the past there have been several sightings closer to Bath.
In June 2003, there were several reports of a large black animal roaming in fields to the east of the city.
It was seen in drives and gardens around Batheaston and a lamb was attacked in nearby Shockerwick.
Two years earlier, a big, tan-coloured animal was seen on a footpath near Frome Road.
However the most notorious big cat sighting was the so-called Beast of Brassknocker Woods in the early 1980s.
At the time, residents believed their were several wild animals stalking the Combe Down area with reports of screeches being heard late at night and bark being stripped from trees.
No animal was ever found.
FS thanks to Katy Jordon for fowarding this story.
(Original headline: MYSTERY AS CALVES SAVAGED )
