A sickening discovery is under investigation after 20 dead “canines” — apparently skinned and with their front paws removed — washed ashore on a Washington State island in less than two weeks.
The Skagit County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the disturbing sight on March 26 when beachgoers discovered six carcasses on Guemes Island, about 85 miles north of Seattle, according to officials.
An animal control officer found five more dead canines along the shoreline.
An additional deceased canine was recovered from the La Conner Channel on March 31, police said.
The grim tally continued to rise on April 2, when eight more carcasses were collected from the beaches of Guemes Island, bringing the devastating total to 20, KIRO 7 reported.
Skagit County Fire District 17 Chief Olivia Cole described the discoveries as a “creepy mystery” that has left her “fighting back tears and anger.”
“We were expecting to find maybe three or four because we were told they washed out with the tide,” she told the outlet. “We ended up finding ten.”
Cole said all the animals appeared to have been skinned and had their front paws cut off — and some were found with orange twine tied around their necks.
Police have yet to confirm whether the animals are domestic dogs, wolves, foxes, or coyotes, but Cole said it’s easy to “tell they’re all dogs.”
“When you look at them, you can tell it’s not a coyote,” she told local outlet Go Anacortes. “Most coyotes don’t have black and white fur on them unless they’re a hybrid.”
The 10 carcasses Cole turned over to the sheriff’s office Wednesday — to be handed to a local veterinarian for a necropsy and DNA testing — were collected from beaches on the southwest side of the island, she said.
She suspects the carcasses didn’t start where they were found and most likely washed ashore on the southeast side of the island days earlier, before tides pushed them to the southwest side.
Cole said she believes the carcasses may have been dumped from a boat with cinder blocks attached, noting that “the way that they all landed here on our beaches was such that they kind of floated up at different times.”
Guemes Island has also been known as “Dog Island” — a nickname rooted in centuries of history.
The island has a notable historical connection to dogs. Native Americans who inhabited the area for centuries called it “Qweng qwengila,” which means “many dogs,” a reference to the woolly dogs they raised and sheared for weaving, according to Guemes Island.info.
It was later nicknamed “Dog Island” by early 20th-century settlers because of the large numbers of wild Salish Wool Dogs living on the island.
Cole — an animal lover who grooms dogs on the side — said the discovery has left her rattled, unlike anything she has encountered in all her years of public safety work.
“There is a diabolical person out there, and we need to find out what’s going on,” she said.
Anyone with information about the case or who finds additional carcasses is asked to contact the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office, as the investigation remains ongoing.
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