Florida: Davie couple say black panther has been prowling around their yard (via Chad Arment)

Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel
January 21, 2012

DAVIE —

A wild cat a Davie couple say they spotted in their backyard more than a week ago has some residents on edge.

Local trapper Robert Leach has set up a cage on the property, hoping to capture the animal. 

Mayor Judy Paul suspects it may be a bobcat, not a black panther as reported by the resident.

"Call it what you want," said Sheldon Friedberg, who called police on Jan. 14 after his wife spotted what she called a black panther pawing at her cat. 

Friedberg said his wife went outside that night to shoo away what she thought was a black dog.

"It wasn't a dog," said Friedberg, who lives in the 6100 block of Southwest 56th Street, northeast of Stirling and Davie Roads. "It had 4-inch fangs. And it's not a bobcat. When it opened its mouth it's like something you see in the movies."

Friedberg said the family cat survived the attack.

He and his wife had seen the animal before, but thought it was a neighbor's oversized cat, he said.

His wife, who appeared recently on a TV news report on WSVN-Ch. 7, declined to comment.

"I can tell you this," Friedberg said. "It's a gigantic cat. It's out there. They still haven't caught it."

Mark McCarthy, who runs a wildlife sanctuary in The Acreage in Palm Beach County, said he doubts the animal that the Friedbergs say is prowling around their property is a black panther.

"A lot of people don't know one cat from another," he said. "People call and tell me they hit a jaguar and I go out and it's a bobcat. Maybe it was a bobcat or cougar and it got in the mud."

The mayor also had doubts.

"We've got bobcats and they're sometimes dark," Paul said. "We have had coyote sightings out west. Where would a black panther have come from?"

Davie Police Capt. Dale Engle had this advice for anyone who spots the animal: Call 911.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/fl-panther-davie-folo-20120121,0,1729294.story