Otter Bites The Hand That Rescues It From Supermarket

A supermarket shopper in western Ireland needed a tetanus shot after rescuing a disoriented otter, which bit him multiple times.

The unidentified man spotted the mammal scuttling around the Tesco store in Castlebar at 9 a.m. Monday.

After covering the critter with his sweatshirt, he crossed several busy roads to return it to a nearby lake from where he believed the animal had come. But his kindness came at a cost, as the otter repeatedly bit him during the rescue.

“The poor little guy was very difficult to hold,” the man told the Irish Mirror. “He was squirming and was clearly very distressed. But I knew if I dropped him anywhere short of the lake he’d be close to traffic.”

The man revealed how the otter “sank his tooth through my nail” at one point. So he visited his doctor’s surgery and receive a tetanus shot. “But I guess it had to be done,” he added.

The otter did not make contact “with any foodstuffs,” Tesco Ireland said in a statement. But staff sanitized the area“as a precautionary measure.”