A North Okanagan hunter was horrified to find nearly 100 bear paws left behind on a road over the weekend.
Those bear paws would belong to more than two dozen bears, according to the hunter, who made the discovery and did not want to be named.
“That’s 20 or 30 bears,” she told the CBC. “Whoever did this should be caught and held accountable.”
Video sent to CBC and posted on social media shows the gruesome scene on Estate Drive near rural Anglemont, B.C.
The experienced hunter said the paws appear to be from adults and cubs. She said they had been declawed and handled in a manner that suggests inexperience.
“This is nothing hunters or a taxidermist would do,” she said. “It was a chop job.”
The hunter said said she contacted Chase RCMP and the B.C. Conservation Officer Service. She said she heard back on Monday afternoon that conservation officers from Kamloops were at the scene and investigating.
CBC has contacted the service and the RCMP but has not heard back.
In B.C., both the sale and possession of bear parts — including paws, gall bladders and genitals — is illegal.
Bear parts are trafficked on the black market and can sell for thousands of dollars abroad for their alleged medicinal properties.
According to the witness, it appeared as if the paws had been dumped out of a vehicle.
The #BCCOS is investigating a report of a disposal of wildlife parts, including several bear paws, near #Anglemont
— BC CO Service (@_BCCOS) May 25, 2021
Conservation Officers attended the site in the Anglemont Mountain area, along Forest Service Road 695, and collected evidence.
The #BCCOS is requesting assistance from the public to help identify who may have disposed of these parts.
— BC CO Service (@_BCCOS) May 25, 2021
If you have any information, please call the #RAPP line. pic.twitter.com/0rfjIMoay6
