Firefighters who responded to a report of a fire in 5 Tastes Chinese Bistro early Thursday morning discovered a bear paw in one of the restaurant’s fridges.
“When first responders responded to the fire on their inspection of the premises they discovered what they believed to be a bear paw, or parts thereof, of a bear,” said Sergeant Conservation Officer, Todd Hunter.
University RCMP would not comment on the incident as it is currently under investigation by the conservation officers.
“Conservation officer service was notified and an investigation has been launched with the RCMP and the conservation officers to determine the legality of the bear parts,” said Hunter.
A spokesperson for 5 Tastes responded to the Ubyssey's request for comment, saying that the owner is "a big fan of hunting, so he goes to this kind of hunting trip from time to time in the year, and just before the fire happened the other day, he just came back from one of the hunting trips with part of a bear, which was legally hunted."
The spokesperson said the owner lives in a one-bedroom apartment on campus and therefore did not have enough space to store the entire bear. "The fire alarm was triggered at night on the same day, so the police officer came in and saw this bear paw, and basically it was just stored here, it was not for serving on the table for customers, definitely," said the spokesperson.
The same source stated that the fire was caused by a pot of boiled eggs left on the stove that caused a great deal of smoke, but no actual flames.
This article was updated on June 5 at 3:50 p.m. to include comment from 5 Tastes.