The Wireless News Flash has sent out a breaking news dispatch on the Maine sheep killings to their 800 worldwide media outlets:

Portland, Maine (Wireless Flash) — Earlier this week a mysterious beast killed 29 sheep in Lincoln County, Maine, but oddly enough the animal didn’t eat any lamb chops.

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, author of “Mysterious America” (Paraview Pocket Books), says the answer to the attack might be found in black panthers, who aren’t indigenous to North America, but could be making a comeback and preying on unexpecting livestock.

Coleman says there have been recent sightings of the dangerous cougars in Illinois, Ohio, and New England, and reports that sheriffs and park rangers have witnessed the panthers’ true dark sides first hand.

As Coleman puts it, “Black panthers tend to kill lots of animals on rampages.”

But, wherever the panthers may be, something still sent a poor New England sheperd’s flock of sheep to sleep with the fishes.“Black Panthers Make A Comeback,” Wireless News Flash, 6.8.07.

For those not familiar with the Wireless Flash News Service, this story reflects mistakes, puns, and other warped text in the service of a good sense of humor in their dispatches.

Nevertheless, to place some reality on the record, I must point out that if something is not indigenous to an area and is an unverified animal, a cryptid in general, how is it that I would ever say such creatures are making a “comeback”? LOL. Perhaps the reporter meant “comeback” in terms of a new “increase” or “outbreak” of new reports?

As far as my talking about “recent sightings” in Illinois and Ohio, I mentioned to the reporter the waves of livestock killings and my investigations from the 1970s, as being detailed in Mysterious America. Finally, of course, I would never use the phrase “dangerous cougars” when talking about cryptid panthers.

One thread I did discuss with the reporter was the history of sightings from the general area of these recent attacks on sheep, as noticably occurring in Lincoln County, Maine. This region from Damariscotta, in Lincoln County, over northeast to the adjoining county of Waldo County, Maine, has been a hotbed of “Black Panther” encounters for the last two decades.

The reporter seems to have been thinking of HBO’s final episode of The Sopranos (Sunday, June 10th) with his final attempt for humor in his final line.