>>1305021The kayak rolled.
The couple was thrown into the water— half-swimming, half-flailing their paddles to try to fend off the animal.
“I took my paddle, and I tried to get him off of me, and he wouldn’t let go, and I kept screaming, I kept beating him with a paddle,” Spector told Fox affiliateWTVT. “When you’re [in the middle of] it you don’t have a lot of thought except you hope you survive.”
Spector and her husband climbed on their guide’s kayak and began paddling “as fast as we could,” she told the Times. “The otter followed us but didn’t attack again.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement earlier this week thatthe agency’s law enforcement officers were searching for an “aggressive otter” after four kayakerswere injured in separateattacks Saturday and Sunday on the Braden River inManatee County.
TheFWCwarned that those whoare bitten or scratched bywild animals should seek medical attention because they can carry rabies, a potentiallydeadly virusthat attacks thecentral nervous system.
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