Mom Tackles Home-Invading Otter

Moms will do anything to protect their children, including taking on a crazed otter.

According to WisTV.com, a mom came to the rescue when an otter attacked her 17-year-old daughter and her dog in their Lakeland, Florida, home.

Just before dawn on Tuesday, Feb. 4, Gwyn Ewert, 17, let the family's French bulldog, Scooter, out on the back porch. Not long after, she heard fighting.

I sprinted to the backdoor, and I was like, 'Scooter!' All I saw was like a big, black ball, just all over the place. So, he stumbled in the door, and I tried to shut it as fast as possible but then the otter got stuck, Gwyn said.

The commotion woke everyone in the house including Gwyn's mother, Casina Ewert, who ran in and tackled the otter.

"I snatched it by the tail, and then, I held it up like a prize."

— Casina Ewert, otter fighter

"He and the dog are in a big, tangled tumbleweed, spinning around," Casina said. I snatched it by the tail, and then, I held it up like a prize. The otter's going crazy. It was clawing at me and grabbing onto the backs of the furniture in my house.

Casina tossed the otter back outside, but then discovered it had bitten her daughter in the leg.

The Ewerts went to the hospital where Gwyn got a rabies shot that day and a booster shot Friday. Scooter had already received his rabies shot, but was put under quarantine as a precaution.

It is not known if the otter is rabid because it hasn't been caught, but experts say its behavior was definitely abnormal. Any time an otter's onshore going for a human, there's something not right. Usually, they see you, they're gone, said Dustin Hooper, an animal trapper and owner of All Creatures Wildlife Control.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says it's received reports of an aggressive otter in the area that attacked another dog. The agency has set up traps to catch the animal.

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