Moody said a Sheriff’s deputy came with a rifle after the chicken killings and speculated that the animal might be “an illegal juvenile pet black panther that has escaped from someone’s home.” (The term ‘black panther’ typically refers to a black leopard or black jaguar, since there is no such species as a a black panther. Their throats had been slashed and they were still warm.” The big cat leaped over a fence right in front of him, he said.ĭan Moody recalled, “Another strange thing that might be related is that on Christmas Day, a retired Southwestern College professor came across two dead coyotes at the end of her cul-de-sac on the eastern side of Dictionary Hill (in Spring Valley). the next morning, he checked on the coop and found the black cat was inside and had killed his remaining four chickens. He told ECM that he found “a big black cat is inside the coop.” The cat killed one chicken that night and around 5 a.m. Navy Chief, says he heard his five chickens making noise. Two months earlier, her neighbor, Manuel Domagsang, a retired U.S. “My dog (a German Shepherd) weighs 70 pounds and it was at least as big as her…It was right in the middle of the field, sauntering across.” She described the large cat as “black and shiny” with a tail at least half as long as its body.” “It was definitely a cat, long and sleek,” Dee Moody, a retired high school teacher, told ECM. Most recently, on January 5, Southwestern College language and literature professor Dan Moody told ECM that his mother, Dee Moody saw a jet-black, large cat that weighted at least 60 pounds walk across an open field behind her Spring Valley house on January 4 - in broad daylight. If these rare cats are regaining a toehold in our region, is anything being done to protect them from being shot by ranchers, law enforcement, or wildlife officials who may be unaware of their protected status? Both jaguars and jaguarundis are critically endangered in the U.S.Are these cats escaped exotic pets, or could one or more black jaguars, believed extinct in California, or smaller jaguarundis have found their way back into our region?.

While thus far no one has captured photos of the animals, the growing number of sightings from seemingly credible sources-including an East County Magazine reporter, raises some intriguing questions.

Janu(San Diego’s East County)-A rash of sightings of large black wildcats have been reported in East County, most recently in Spring Valley. Photos (not local): Jaguarundi, black jaguar, and melanistic jaguar with spots visible Facebook Journalism Project covid-19 reporting.

Prowling panther cat