Curious animal in Wolverhampton

From The Times, January 18th, 1934.

IDENTITY PUZZLE AT WOLVERHAMPTON.
From our correspondent.

Wolverhampton, Jan. 17.

The identity of a curious animal which was killed by a 17-year-old youth while it was running after a baby is perplexing people at Wolverhampton.

The body of the animal, which is now in a corporation yard, was found by a corporation workman in a gutter in Peel Street. The creature has an overall length of about 38in., and a head something like that of a small wild boar, with an upturned snout and a body about the size of a full-grown cat. It has a thick brush-like tail which measures about 16in.

George Goodhead, of Raglan Street, Wolverhampton, who killed the animal, said that it was running after a baby on some waste land near Peel Street, where a number of slum dwellings have recently been demolished and the area cleared. The baby ran, and the animal crouched and sprang at him. He (Goodhead) had a brick end in his hand, and he hit the creature on the head with it. It dropped to the ground, and, when he kicked it with his foot, made a croaking sort of noise.

A suggestion has been made that the animal is either one of a pair of mongoose lost over 30 years ago, or the offspring of a mongoose which has mated with a rat. It has been suggested also that the animal may have been living beneath the old houses which have recently been demolished.

a mongoose
 Not really much like a mongoose from the sound of it, where's his piggy face? I like the 'threat to babies' idea. And also the rather non-biological suggestion that it was half mongoose half rat. Not to mention the idea that it was from mysteriously released mongooses lost some time ago (rather like the modern Big Cat). My guess is a Tasmanian devil. Sounds more like the description. But not very likely I fear. Still, might have been lost 30 years before.