A fun family trip to the aquarium turned into a terrifying trip to the hospital-- and now, the family is suing.
It happened on May 2. Stacy Williams, her husband and their two kids were visiting the Dallas World Aquarium. In the lawsuit filed Monday, Williams says the family had been at the aquarium for less than an hour when her 18-month-old son was "brutally attacked" by a Giant Otter.
"One of the Giant Otters leapt up, and was able to get above the plexiglass barrier," says Heather Davis, an attorney at Carter Law Group who is representing the family. "The 18-month-old was left with a pretty significant gouge … he was bleeding profusely."
Davis says Williams tried to stop the bleeding with her hands as the family ran through the aquarium in search of medical personnel. According to the lawsuit, the aquarium's medics agreed that the boy needed to be taken to the hospital. It says he received more than a dozen stitches, and less than 24 hours after he was released, the young boy returned to the hospital with a fever.
"The toddler developed a Pasteurella bacteria infection," Davis says. "Which is an infection from a bacteria that's found in the claws and mouths of animals."
Davis says the little boy took months to recover and has significant, permanent scarring on his arm.
The family is suing the Dallas World Aquarium for more than $1 million in damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish and permanent disfigurement. The lawsuit alleges that the aquarium was negligent in their care and handling of the otters. Social media posts included in the lawsuit mention other instances of the Giant Otters either crawling up the wall of their enclosure or escaping altogether, one from 2007 and one from 2013. Davis says the Giant Otter exhibit should be fully enclosed.
"Giant otters aren't like your normal, cutesy otters holding hands in the river," Davis says. "These things are like five to six feet tall. They're athletic. They can leap out of the water. And they're aggressive-- they're called river wolves in their native South America."
The lawsuit alleges that there were no signs warning that the otters could be dangerous.
KRLD News reached out to the Dallas World Aquarium for comment and has not received a response.
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD