Tom Saask has been walking the hills of the Don Valley for 50 years, since the retiree was a teen, but recently he’s found something new.

Skinned beavers — peeled from their pelts and left only metres off a walking path.

At first there was just two. But in the month since his initial find, he’s found six more, including four on Wednesday.

Now Saask wants to know — who is Don Valley’s rogue trapper? “This (trapper) seems to think he needs the skins more than the beavers do,” said Saask, 65.

City staff said there’s no bylaw against the practice within Toronto. In fact, trapping is entirely legal, with permission of course.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) says trapping is licensed and regulated on Crown land, and allowed on private land with written permission from the owner.

And in this case, a small tract north of Pottery Rd. and the Don River known as Crothers Woods, is owned by both the City of Toronto and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA).

But neither has been asked for permission to trap, leaving eight bare beavers and at least one rogue trapper.

Saask and the TRCA fear leghold traps may have been placed along the banks of the Don, which are potentially dangerous for children and pets off leash.

“A kid walking along the bank could step into (a leghold trap) and it could be a nasty situation,” said Ralph Toninger, a wildlife expert with the TRCA.

And while it’s clear someone has been trapping beavers for their pelts, the question of why remains.

The pelts themselves are only worth $35, said Alan Herscovici, director of the Fur Council of Canada.

“It’s not like a get-rich plan by any means,” Herscovici said. “(It’s) a lot of work for the money a trapper gets.”

There’s also a question of where to sell the pelt — Herscovici said only two auction houses handle the sale of furs in Canada, both in Ontario.

“Every pelt is tracked,” said Nancy Daigneault, director of communications for North American Fur Auctions in Toronto. Each pelt that hits the auction floor comes with a licence number and location, and a $1.70 royalty fee is paid out to the ministry after the sale.

Toronto falls into the ministry’s Aurora District, which spans the area between Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario, from Burlington to Newcastle. There are 133 trappers in the area, but Toninger said leaving the carcass behind within the city, like those Saask found, would mean loss of a licence.

When Saask initially made the discovery, he called the city, which removed the first two carcasses the next day, roughly one month ago. With more beavers being found, he wants additional action.

“I would like the city to put some real effort into, first of all, finding any traps that are left in the river,” Saask said.

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Since learning of the skinned beavers, Toninger said, he has been co-ordinating with the city’s parks, forestry and recreation department to look into the issue. He said it’s too early to say if the TRCA would call in the ministry to investigate further.

And while the city and the TRCA looks into what happened, Saask has a simple message for the unknown rogue trapper:

“Stop. Go out of the city. If you need to sell beaver pelts . . . go where nobody will notice that they’re gone. Don’t take the city’s wildlife away. Please.”

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