Rabid Otter Bites, Partly Rips Off Elderly Kayaker's Ear During Violent Attack

A 77-year-old woman was attacked by a possibly rabid otter while she was kayaking down a Florida river Sunday, media reports said Wednesday. The wild river otter bit the elderly woman and partly ripped off her ear during the attack due to which she had to get stitches and treatments for rabies.

Sue Spector was not alone when the vicious otter attacked, her husband Marty and a group of 10 people were also kayaking down Braden River. Spector told FOX13 News that the animal suddenly jumped on her and began clawing, scratching and hitting at her arms, nose and ear.

"It was very pristine and very nice and I heard someone make a comment that, 'Oh, there's an otter!'" Spector told FOX13. "And then all of a sudden he jumped on the kayak and two seconds later he jumped on me.

"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 added. "When you're [in the middle of] it you don't have a lot of thought except you hope you survive."

Spector said her kayak also flipped over at the time, and she had to fight off the otter while she was neck-deep in water.

"I heard someone behind me say, 'Oh look, there's an otter,' then I heard somebody screaming and I realized it was my wife," Marty said, according to the New York Daily News. "My boat turned over and so I was in the water with a paddle, just trying to beat the otter of her back. It didn't want to come off!"

Spector said after several attempts to get off the otter, it eventually released its claws and went back in the river. The 77-year-old said she was luckily wearing life jacket that protected her back.

"By some miracle, I don't have any injuries on the top of my head," she said.

Marsha Wikle, the Manatee conservation chairwoman for the Sierra Club who was leading the kayaking trip, told Inside Edition that Spector was bleeding when she came out of the water.

“He did serious damage to her nose,” Wikle said. “He bit off a piece of her ear.”

The woman's husband took her to a nearby hospital, where she was given antibiotics for her injuries and also received treatment for rabies.

The attack on Spector came a day after another kayaker was hospitalized after an otter attacked two people about two miles from where the elderly woman was attacked Sunday. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers had arrived at the scene Saturday after they were informed about an aggressive otter.

FWC spokeswoman Melody Kilborn reportedly said officers spent the past three days searching the river for the otter but had not spotted the animal.

"The FWC takes public safety very seriously and FWC law enforcement are on scene actively searching for the aggressive otter," she said. "Staff are also working closely with the Manatee County Department of Health to provide information to the public."