Because there’s one on the beach in West Seattle right now and

Published 8:00 am Friday, February 4, 2011

Because there’s one on the beach in West Seattle right now and no one seems to know what to do with it. The bloated bovine was first reported on the West Seattle Blog forums late Wednesday night by a woman whose property extends right to the water in the 5900 block of Beach Drive. It’s since been followed up with reporting Thursday on WSB and the Beach Drive Blog.She was apparently taking a walk with her husband when, sure enough, there’s a dead cow… On the beach.In another strange twist, the beast was found with its legs hogtied.Here’s the only picture to have surfaced so far (taken from quite a distance).Seattle Police investigated the carcass yesterday and Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smit told WSB:”A third watch supervisor responded and did indeed locate a carcass which appeared to be used for bait for crab pots. Complainant was advised to call animal control if the carcass was still there after 0900 hours.”Crab pots? Bait?Apparently Puget Sound breeds crustaceans similar to those found in Clash of the Titans.And because the thing washed ashore on private property, there isn’t anything the police or animal control can do about it.Seattle Weekly talked to Kara Main-Hester at the Seattle Animal Shelter, and she said she’s never heard of a dead cow washing ashore or of a cow being used as bait for . . . well, anything.She also says that yeah, it’s the property owner’s problem.”Because it’s on private property, we don’t do anything about it. It’s the property owner’s responsibility,” she says. “Occasionally, we’ll have seals and sea lions wash up. One time we had a deer wash up. But never a cow. We had a huge sea lion wash up once, and the person basically waited for the tide to come up and wash it back out.”That’s actually what the couple who owns the property is hoping will happen with the tide, although they acknowledge that it may just wash up on some other person’s private beach later.So that brings us back to the original question: Anyone want a dead cow?–Follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dailyweekly