Several skinned beavers found near Don River

TORONTO – A Toronto man is raising the alarm of city officials after stumbling upon the skinned carcasses of several beavers near the Don River.

Tom Saask routinely walks through the valley along the Don River but earlier this month he came across something unfamiliar.

“I see this big blaze of red under the end of a log. And it was two beaver carcasses, totally skinned,” Saask told Global News. “Without the skin it wasn’t a coyote, it wasn’t any animal.”

After his first gruesome find, he told city staff who assured him they would clean it up and look for traps.

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But the next week, Saask said, he found more.

And soon after that, still more carcasses.

In all, Saask believes he has come across eight carcasses that have been skinned by someone.

“I’m afraid there’s a lot of young beavers and only one or two big ones. He’s going to clean out the entire little family unit that floats around there in the Don River,” Saask said.

Beaver trapping in the Don Valley is legal but only with a permit from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

While not as popular as they once were in Canada, beaver pelts still sell for between $30 and $40.

“Trappers are a professional group that take their job seriously and would not do something of this nature,” the conservation authority’s Habitat Restoration Manager Ralph Toninger said. “As part of their code of conduct they’re required to dispose of animals ethically.”

The conservation authority doesn’t think the beavers came from the Don valley – which would mean they were dumped illegally.

However if the beavers are found to be local to the area, conservation officials say that it could have a negative impact on the local ecosystem.