A dead cow on a beach in Victoria has city officials trying to figure out how to remove it because there isn't a path for heavy equipment to the beach. (CBC)

A cow carcass that washed up on a popular beach in Victoria may have to stay there until the proper permits from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are issued.

The removal has the potential to disrupt fish habitat, meaning the DFO must be consulted, and as an agriculture animal is involved, the CFIA must also be consulted, according to the City of Victoria.

Further hampering the removal effort is the fact that there are no access roads to the beach, which would enable the city to send in the necessary heavy equipment.

The cow washed up on a beach near Beacon Hill Park over the weekend. City staff had hoped the carcass would be washed out to sea overnight but it was still on the shoreline on the south side of the city on Monday morning, according to Katie Josephson, the communications director for the city.

Beaches are a federal jurisdiction, so it's most likely up to the federal government to remove the carcass, but city employees are still investigating, Josephson said.

"We've never had a cow before, so we're not sure if it's status quo, or if this is an intricacy that needs to be dealt with by another agency," she told CBC News. "Also, the size and the location of the cow makes it a bit more of a challenge, because it's below the high-water mark."

Most years, two or three animals wash ashore in the seaside city, but this is the first time in recent memory anything this large has come ashore, Josephson said.