I’d not caught onto this story before (probably because I haven’t been following much world news) about Human Feet washing up on the shores of Westham Island near Vancouver – article from the Guardian 21st June 2008.

Five human feet have washed up on the island coastline around Vancouver since August last year, including two in the last four weeks. All but the one on Westham Island have been right feet; all but one appear to have been male and all have been wearing trainers – Reeboks, Nikes and Adidas. The first four were all size 12…

…But the most recent foot turned out not to be human at all. A prankster had stuffed an animal paw into a trainer and then planted it on the beach. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were not amused…

…DNA profiles of the first three feet, found last year, do not match any missing-person cases, according to the coroner’s office. While the evidence has been gathered, there are few clues to the origin of the five feet…

…
Theories about the origins of the feet abound. Some suggest that they belong to victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami, or that they may be from the victims of maritime or air accidents.

Others point to the large numbers of missing people in British Columbia. According to police there were 2,371 people listed as missing in the province at the end of May, with gang-related crime, drugs and homelessness all contributing to the problem. The exploits of a Vancouver area pig farmer, Robert Pickton, loom large. Pickton was convicted last year of the murder of six women, and according to the prosecution at his trial confessed to the murder of 43 others.

The suggestion that there may be a criminal element connected with the appearance of so many feet is bolstered by the conclusion of Ebbesmeyer and other oceanographers that the feet have most probably been carried down the Fraser river – which flows from the Rocky mountains before reaching the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver – swelled by the spring snow melt…

…Back at Westham Island, the man who found foot number five has few doubts about its origin.

“This is coming down from the river, no question about it,” he said. “There’s someone doing this all right. Think about it: if they tied a chain around someone’s ankle and threw them overboard, the foot would just pop off. That could explain it. Maybe they got a lot of bodies stored up in a container and they got washed out. We don’t know. There’s a lot of stuff goes on over there,” he added, nodding toward the city.

It’s all very puzzling, rather creepy, and disturbing

However, it reminded me of a story relating to european dairy farmers. I don’t have a link for it unfortunately, but it goes something like this:

The EU concluded that there was too much milk being produced by dairy farmers to the point that it was being called a “Milk Lake”. To address the problem they legislated that a certain percentage of dairy cattle would have to be slaughtered, though the farmer would be compensated by the EU for every cow he had slaughtered. The way they would be paid was simple; the slaughter house would give the left ear (it may not have been that specific or even been the right ear) of every cow and a certificate to the farmer to send off to collect his money.
The scheme appeared to have been successful as the uptake had been very high after several months. Shortly after the scheme had been stopped, it was noted that were a lot of cows roaming fields with only one ear! The cows were still alive producing milk, with the only problem that they were missing an ear so slightly deaf.
I’ve heard it told as Italian farmers, though I believe the French were the biggest culprits.

Anyway, that was what sprung to mind, but I do hope something more is discovered about the the mystery in Westham Island