Residents claim leopard is roaming in Entebbe

By Andrew Masinde

ON a shiny Wednesday morning, Maria Kakai of Entebbe Municipality woke up in a 'business-as-usual' mood, only to find her five pigs lying dead in the sty.

Some of the pigs, which she was planning to sell to get money for her three sons' school fees, were headless while others had wounds on the neck.

"This was strange because there was no trace of blood in the sty yet the pigs had big wounds. I believe it is a leopard that killed the pigs because if it were to be stray dogs then it would have eaten the carcass," she stressed.

"I don't know where to start from; my husband abandoned me with three children and I have been surviving on these pigs. I don't know what I am going to do," the old woman lamented.

The strange animal has terrified the villages of Lunyo East and Lunyo West in Entebbe municipality, killing 14 pigs in a space of one week.

The two villages are home to close to 1,800 people who depend majorly on small scale farming, mostly piggery and poultry, for a living. There are conflicting reports about what the animal that is attacking pigs could be.

While officials from the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), which is also located in Entebbe Municipality, think they could be stray dogs, residents believe it is a leopard.

Soldiers from a nearby barracks who preferred anonymity also approved of seeing a leopard and three cubs in the area.

But Dr Julius Kyaligonza, a veterinary officer at UWEC, said it was too early to speculate that it was a leopard.

"We have gone to the scene and seen how the animals were killed, and I believe it is a wild animal. We have cautioned people to stay indoors at night as we are keep tracking the animals. We are planning to set up traps to see that this animal is captured, but we have to first know its size," he explained.

Residents are however, worried the animal could also attack people at they go to fetch water at the open well and children at Namate Primary School.

Three days after the incident at Kakai's home, the animal attacked her neighbour Vincent Masaba's pigs killing seven of them in the same style. "All my seven pigs were six months old and I was expecting to sell them after eight months to get some money," he said.

"Dogs do not attack pigs. They also don't suck blood and leave the carcass. I believe it is a leopard that has invaded our area. We are near a forest and I believe it is where the animal is coming from," Masaba noted.

The LC I chairman Francis Wasswa said he had not seen such a strange incidence in the area in the last 60 years he has lived there. He recalls that there were stray dogs in the 90s but they worked with the municipal council that trapped all the dogs and since them the place has been peaceful.

"These can't be dogs, I have been hearing rumours from the soldiers that there is a leopard that has three cubs and I believe it is the one killing our pigs. The army should clear the bushes in the barracks because they could be were the animals are harbouring," Waswa explained.

When New Vision visited the area, residents were found fighting for the carcasses. 

Prof. Johnson Acon of Makerere University faculty of veterinary medicine warned eating meat killed by wild animals can transmit diseases like rabies and Ebola.