BAKER CITY — Brian Blomster wondered what caused the neighbor’s dog to jump into the bushes beside the street and later attracted his cat’s attention.

Then he saw what it was.

And wished he hadn’t.

The carcass of a skinned coyote was discarded atop some shrubs beside Hillcrest Drive, Baker City, just across the street from the home, at 305 Hillcrest Drive, where Blomster has lived for four years.

He found the carcass the morning of Feb. 21.

“I was freaked out because it looked like a dog,” Blomster said.

He called the Baker County Dispatch Center.

Officer Rand Weaver of the Baker City Police Department arrived around 9:30 a.m. He said he took the carcass to the Animal Clinic of Baker, where a veterinarian identified it as a coyote, not a domestic dog.

Blomster said he’s convinced that whoever dumped the carcass did so the previous night. If it had been there Feb. 20, he’s certain he or someone else would have seen it.

Blomster said although he’s glad the carcass wasn’t a domestic dog, he still is bothered someone would toss a dead animal beside a residential street rather than outside town.

“It just feels offensive,” he said in a phone interview on Friday, Feb. 25. “Why would you do that?”

Blomster and Weaver both said inside the carcass was a surgical rubber glove and a length of red cord.

Weaver figured the person who skinned the coyote wore gloves while doing so, and used the cord to suspend the carcass while skinning it.

Weaver said if police could identify the person who discarded the carcass, the person could be cited for offensive littering.

But he conceded that’s extremely unlikely to happen, absent an eyewitness or security camera evidence that identifies at least a vehicle.

Weaver said the state crime lab isn’t going to try to extract human DNA from the carcass for what is a misdemeanor offense.

Blomster said he understands it’s improbable anyone will be punished. But he’s still upset about the incident.

“It was extremely creepy,” he said. “Why didn’t they just leave it out in the wild?”