Attacked By Black Panther - Western New York Hunter Has Fierce Battle with Enraged Beast Rochester, Feb. 10. – Fred Emerson of Bolivia, Alleghany County, while hunting squirrels in the woods back of his home, came across the tracks of a strange animal. Following them up he came to a dark shallow cave out of which peered a pair of gleaming eyes. Without stopping to take aim the thoroughly frightened hunter raised his gun and fired the contents, a charge of small shot used to squirrels, into the cavern.
A snarl, followed by the sudden appearance of a wounded black panther, came from the cave as the result, and while the hunter endeavoured to reload his gun the animal attacked him. In less than two minutes his dog was killed, being literally torn to pieces, and the hunter was obliged to defend himself with his clubbed gun.
Emerson struck the beast again and again with his gun, nearly shattering the weapon to pieces. He finally dispatched the beast, but not until he was badly cut up and perhaps fatally injured by the sharp claws of the panther.
The animal measured nine feet from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. He was a full-grown male specimen of the black panther and it is believed escaped from a circus train that was wrecked in this vicinity last summer.
New York Times: February 11, 1900