A sixth foot believed to have washed ashore on Vancouver Island was not human, although it was found inside a sock and running shoe, according to the B.C. Coroners Service.

"A forensic pathologist and an anthropologist have examined the shoe and remains, and determined a skeletonised animal paw was inserted into the shoe with a sock and packed with dried seaweed," BCCS said in a statement Thursday.

The foot had been found inside a size-10 black Adidas shoe.

Five human feet have been found in the waters of the Georgia Strait area between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland in the past year, and only one has been a left foot.

The hoax particularly affected Sally Feast. The foot had been found close to where her brother's plane went down in 2005. She thought the latest foot and the others found might have belonged to the one of the crash's victims.

"It's a cruel joke, the cruelest joke. I can't believe someone would do this," she told CTV News.

The first two feet washed up in August 2007, one on Gabriola Island, the other on Jedidiah Island. Then in February another foot appeared on Valdes Island.

B.C.'s chief coroner Terry Smith has said foul play is not suspected because there does not appear to be any evidence the bones were severed.

Investigators are focusing on the missing bodies of four plane crash victims who disappeared in February 2005. The discovery of the sixth foot had cast doubt on whether the crash and the feet were connected, because it seemed to indicate a fifth body.

"This type of hoax is reprehensible and very disrespectful to the families of missing persons," said BCCS.

"It fuels inappropriate speculation and creates undue anxiety for families and communities while wasting valuable investigative time and resources that could be spent on the main investigations."

With a report from CTV's Rob Brown