There’s more than one way to skin a cat, but still no word on how many a coyote requires. A man who tried last week received a warning from the DEM.

Police got a call from a Child Street resident on Sunday, March 29, who was concerned that she could see a neighbor skinning a dead coyote in a parking lot attached to his property. Police came out and asked the man what he was doing; he said he’d accidentally hit the coyote while driving several weeks ago, but saved the carcass. He said his aim was to harvest the pelt and sell it for a profit.

Police alerted the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), and officers from the state agency gave the man a written warning advising him that such backyard butchering is illegal. Said Warren Deputy Chief Joseph Loiselle: “We told him you can’t do that in this town.”

Note: Section 32-59 of the Warren town ordinances forbids the rendering or reduction of wild animals, slaughterhouses, as well as the tanning or curing of raw hides.