A Texas aquarium is being sued for the second time in less than a year over a giant otter attacking a child.
Samantha Jorgensen of Fort Worth filed the suit, published in full by NBC DFW, against the Dallas World Aquarium on behalf of her young daughter this week. Jorgensen alleges that when her family visited the aquarium in September 2019, a giant otter reached over a glass barrier and bit her then-2-year-old daughter’s hand. The plexiglass barrier around the enclosure was about 5 and a half feet tall, but the toddler was sitting on the shoulders of her father, who is 6 feet, 3 inches.
To clarify, a giant otter doesn’t just mean a really big otter. Giant otters are their own species, native to South America. They live in freshwater, mostly eat fish and males can grow up to 6 feet long. Here’s a photo of one in the wild:
The aquarium did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
The lawsuit, which includes a photo of the bloody injury, states that the otter bite pulled one of the toddler’s fingernails “clean off.” The suit also alleges that the incident caused “permanent scarring.”
The aquarium currently has a warning reading, “BE AWARE: GIANT OTTERS ARE ACTIVE ANIMALS AND CAN INJURE YOU,” but the suit alleges this warning was not present during the family’s visit and that they had no idea the otters were able to get over the top of the enclosure.
The suit is seeking damages of $250,000 to $1 million.
The allegations echo those from a lawsuit filed in October, according to The Dallas Morning News. In that suit, a woman said a giant otter reached over the top of the enclosure and scratched her 18-month-old son. The wound became infected and ultimately caused what the family said was permanent scarring on his arm. It was not clear whether the same otter was involved.