Wolf of Allendale

December 10, 1904, Hexham Courant reported about the wolf at large in the area of Allendale.  They said that in the period of 3 weeks farmers in Allendale would discover their sheep mutilated, some of them were disemboweled.  Other could no longer find their body and only the horns and head of their livestock were remained.  People believed that the culprit was a wolf that supposedly escaped its master, Captain Bain.  But the wolf that Captain Bain possesses is a mere 4 ½ months old and cannot be a threat to the livestock or to a human life.

The reports of the sightings of the alleged wolf spread throughout the town.  One of them reported about a wolf lurking at the Allenheads School where at least 150 residents gathered their pitchfork and guns to hunt the animal, but unfortunately they were unable to find it there.  On the 17th of December of the same year, Hexham Courant reported another attack of the wolf, where a group of 100 men was unable to track the wolf.  The next day, they formed a group of 200 men but still they failed to find the creature.

People started to panic and became unrest; they would light their lanterns overnight in hope to drive away the creature.  The hunt also continued during the winter period, where the parties used tracking dogs, but even the senses of the tracking dogs proved to be ineffective on the search for the wolf of Allendale.  At this point, the party started to doubt if it is indeed a wolf.  The hounds were designed to track the wolf but since the hounds were unable to find them, there is a possibility that the culprit is not a wolf.

In the year 1905, a carcass of a wolf was found in the railway track in Columbia but Hexham Courant reported that it was not the wolf.  Eventually the attack and the news about the wolf of Allendale just ceased.  Up to this day no one was able to find the creature responsible for the deaths of a number of livestock in Allendale.

Could one of the hunters be right that the creature they were searching for was not a wolf?  How would they explain the scratch and the bite marks found on the sheep?