# Beatin' feet for Canada: Strange doings on Vancouver Island **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420 "2008-06-19T00:14:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/1 "2008-06-19T00:14:54Z")
If you haven’t heard about the mysterious feet washing ashore on Vancouver Island, you can read all about it [here](http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2008/06/18/5916751.html). In a nutshell, six feet in sneakers have washed ashore on VI in the last year, 5 right feet and one left. It’s a bizarre case, authorities have no idea where these feet are coming from, and DNA testing hasn’t helped at all. Here’s my best guess where the feet come from: Smuggled illegal aliens from China, heading to Canada or the U.S. It’s a big, BIG business, and the discipline on the boats that smuggle the people is…harsh. People get killed as a warning all the time, likewise more than a few die on their way across and their mortal remains are consigned to the briny deep. Why just feet? 2 possibilities occur: 1: the bodies are dismembered before being chucked overboard, everything else sinks except the buoyant shoe, currents carry it ashore along with the human meat that occupies it. 2: same thing, really, except natural decomposition separates the foot from the leg, and the shoe floats off with the foot inside. What’s your theory? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/2 "2008-06-19T00:26:53Z")
I agree it’s illegal immigrants, I just think they’re trying to sneak a bit at a time. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/3 "2008-06-19T01:45:49Z")
It’s probably the under-toe. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/4 "2008-06-19T01:54:55Z")
Wait, hold up…there’s already a [two page thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=472123) on this. Or should I say tread? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/5 "2008-06-19T03:29:21Z")
Yeah like we need another groan-inducing pun-filled thread on this. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/6 "2008-06-19T05:44:37Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] Wait, hold up…there’s already a [two page thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=472123) on this. Or should I say tread? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Sure, and it’s punny. I started this thread to see if anyone had a serous theory as to where the feet are coming from. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/7 "2008-06-19T16:35:18Z")
I’m stumped. ---
**Author:** ![Jillyvn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Jillyvn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillyvn)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/8 "2008-06-19T16:43:29Z")
On the CBC yesterday, a criminologist (can’t remember her name) suggested that it could be the result of disturbing a wreckage through dredging or currents. She suggested that a downed boat or plane could have been disturbed and now the body parts are coming to the surface. She stated that feet can travel a long distance, so they could be from anywhere on a current in the ocean. Also, she stated that feet can survive intact and relatively fresh looking in cold ocean water for years (!? - who did that study?) I don’t buy it. There have been a rash of missing men in the Vancouver area of late, and now body parts start showing up? It’s probably the hyperbolist in me, but I’m thinking related homicides. I can’t be the only one. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beatin-feet-for-canada-strange-doings-on-vancouver-island/453420/9 "2008-06-19T23:42:00Z")
NEWS FLASH!!! Just saw on the news that the latest find was actually a practical joke. Someone placed the severed foot of an animal in a shoe and left it on the beach. The news showed the upset family members of some guys that perished in a plane crash in the area a few years ago. They also showed the local cop stating they will find who pulled this prank and will have him arrested. If they catch whoever did this, what could crime could they charge this person?