The Cullerton family is grieving after 47-year-old Bruce Cullerton was attacked and killed by a Jaguar near his home at mile 28½ on the Western Highway. The Jaguar, which was being kept in a cage by Cullerton’s neighbor Richard Foster as a photographic subject, escaped during hurricane Richard after a tree fell on the cat’s cage setting it free.
Since then the animal has been roaming the area and Foster says he spotted the cat at around 10 on Monday night near Cullerton’s home. He says he called out to the feline and it made its way towards his home and into his car park. He was unable to secure the cat however. The following morning, on Tuesday October 26 one of Cullerton’s friends came looking for him but was unable to find him. He then called on Foster who had also not seen Cullerton. They then both went looking for Cullerton, his body was found a couple feet from his gate. He had been bitten to the neck, head and hand and had died on the spot. Cullerton had visited Foster on Monday and had been at the house for a while checking on the internet. He left in the evening and was killed sometime thereafter.
Foster does not know the exact time of the attack and could not say if the jaguar, known as Max, attacked Cullerton before or after he spotted it at around 10 on Monday night. There is now a hunt for the Jaguar and Jaguar Researcher Omar Figueroa has been enlisted to assist in that endeavour. He says that because the animal has been kept in captivity it is likely that it will return to the area where it was kept. Foster has been keeping Jaguars for at least ten years; this most recent one is three years old and has been kept for a year and a half.
Bruce Cullerton was a diesel mechanic who has been living in Belize for the past 18 years; 15 of those years he’s lived at mile 28 ½. He was scheduled to leave the country on Tuesday October 26 for the U.S. for treatment of diabetes.
