Coyote carcasses dumped in Kane forest preserve

Something evil, or just something nasty?

Kane County Forest Preserve Police Chief Mike Gilloffo believes the finding of four skinned coyotes at Fox River Bluff Forest Preserve near St. Charles is the work of somebody too cheap to pay for disposal of the animals.

A woman notified police about the bodies, he said.

Gilloffo said there were truck tire tracks, probably of somebody backing up and dumping the carcasses.

"This was just somebody hunting or trapping them," he said.

"It's the fact that they illegally dumped the carcasses" that irks him, much as it does when people dump their unwanted TVs or other garbage at forest preserves.

The operations department disposed of the bodies.

Coyote trapping season ended Jan. 20, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. You can hunt coyote all year long. However, you can't do either in a Kane County Forest Preserve, unless you get the written permission of the district president, according to the district's regulations. The district has allowed bowhunting of deer in a few preserves.

"We haven't had any problems hunting or trapping illegally," Gilloffo said.

Coyote fur is used in the fashion industry, especially for lining and trimming the hoods of parkas. At a January auction by Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. in Canada, pelts fetched averages of $12 to $56 in U.S. dollars, depending on the type of the coyote and other factors.