Another family is suing the Dallas World Aquarium after their toddler was suddenly attacked by a giant otter, causing injuries.
The lawsuit filed against the Dallas World Aquarium in Downtown Dallas alleges that the two-year-old girl was sitting on her dad’s shoulders when a giant otter leapt up and bit her hand, slicing open two of her fingers, ripping off a fingernail and leaving her with permanent scarring.
"Immediately upon being attacked, [the girl] began screaming and bleeding profusely," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that at the time the attack occurred in 2019, there was no signage warning that giant otters can be aggressive.
The lawsuit says as of last October, two screens display a small warning message.
"These screens display videos of giant otters swimming and
playing underwater," the lawsuit reads. "At the bottom of each of these small screens is a scrolling ticker approximately one inch tall. The scrolling language reads: 'BE AWARE: GIANT OTTERS ARE ACTIVE ANIMALS AND CAN INJURE YOU.'"
The Dallas World Aquarium had not yet responded to KRLD's request for comment Friday morning.
Attorney Heather Davis, with Carter Law Group, is representing the family. And this is not the first time someone has come to her with a case like this.
In October 2021 another family filed a similar lawsuit against the Dallas World Aquarium claiming that a giant otter reached over its plexiglass enclosure and ripped three gashes into the arm of an 18-month-old boy. He required more than a dozen stitches and ended up getting a bacterial infection.
"He was brutally attacked," Davis said.
She said that the giant otter enclosure itself is a huge part of the issue. The habitat is not fully enclosed, and she said that has proven dangerous more than once.
"The wall is not tall enough," Davis said. "The problem is that these giant otters can leap up out of their enclosure, up over the plexiglass wall. These exact otters have actually escaped -- not once -- but multiple times. They've attacked multiple people."
Davis said the families believe that the aquarium could be doing more to prevent future attacks. She said they're pushing for the DWA to close the plexiglass wall of the semi-open habitat.
"The biggest issue for us is to make sure this doesn't happen again," Davis says.
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