Posted on 09/13/2024 10:31:19 AM PDT by DFG
An aggressive otter pulled a young child off a dock and dragged them underwater at a marina in Washington, officials said.
The attack happened at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 12 at the Bremerton Marina, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife said in a news release.
A family was walking down the dock when the animal appeared and pulled the child underwater for a few moments, officials said.
The mom reached into the water to rescue her child and was bitten on the arm by the attacking otter, officials said.
She was able to get her child to safety, but the otter followed after the family as they left the dock, official said.
Officials said the child was taken to a hospital for bites and scratches to their head, face and legs.
“We are grateful the victim only sustained minor injuries, due to the mother’s quick actions and child’s resiliency,” WDFW Sgt. Ken Balazs said in a statement.
Details regarding the child’s age and sex were not released by officials.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services was contacted to trap and kill river otters at the marina.
The animals will then be taken to the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab for testing, including rabies.
River otters can be unpredictable and territorial, officials said.
In the last 10 years, there have been six reports of “human-river otter incidents” in Washington, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“On the otter hand…..”
There otter be a law?
““ Otters are cute. They look sweet and harmless. They aren’t.”
Louisville Slugger would work nicely. Is it legal to carry a baseball bat in public? Its my emotional support bat!
⚾️”
Yes, and any creature has the potential due to instinct of becoming aggressive if you are in or near ‘their territory’. Try coming close to a bull elephant with his herd and see how aggressive aggressive can get.
Here are some examples from Wiki where, when the sex is unknown, using ‘their’ or ‘them’, is appropriate:
“Somebody left their umbrella in the office. Could you please let them know where they can get it?”
“My personal rule is to never trust anyone who says that they had a good time in high school.”
“The patient should be told at the outset how much they will be required to pay.”
“But a journalist should not be forced to reveal their sources.”
Is “them” the child’s preferred pronoun?
ICWYDT. Twice, in fact.
The ‘singular they’ has been in common use in English for hundreds of years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
Perhaps.
A nice heavy cane. One that you carefully drilled a hole in and filled with lead.
The same kind I carry when I am taking my parents dog for a walk. Some poorly socialized animal thinks they are going to grab him for a snack is in for a surprise.
Pulls “them”? More than one child? I don’t get it.
Why not write, “pulled the child”?
Yahoo can GTH.
Or, “the child was dragged under water by the otter.”
BS! "They" is a plural pronoun. The reporter should have done her job and inquired of the sex of the child, and used the proper pronoun. In cases of when referring to a generic person then the proper use is the generic use of "he."
The parent may not have wanted the child’s sex reported, or just stayed away from reporters altogether.
Again, this is not improper usage; it’s been around for hundreds of years, long before anyone started playing around with ‘gender’ in language:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
Maybe the child was royalty. They get the benefit of plurality due to their high noble status.
Yes, “they” can be used as a singular pronoun:
Gender-neutral
“They” is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun that can be used to refer to someone whose gender is unknown or not important. For example, “Somebody left their umbrella in the office. Could you please let them know where they can get it?”
Nonbinary
“They” can also be used as a nonbinary pronoun to refer to someone whose gender is known or knowable, but who does not identify as male or female. For example, “This is my friend, Jay. I met them at work”.
History
“They” has been used as a singular pronoun since at least the 1300s, appearing in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson.
Acceptance
“They” is now widely used in spoken English and is officially recognized as correct by several key bodies, including the American Psychological Association (APA), the Modern Language Association (MLA), and the Oxford English Dictionary.
Usage
It is important to always use a person’s self-identified pronoun, including when a person uses the singular “they” as their pronoun.
River Otters = the Marine version of Hatians.
No.
I will not.
Chronic Dissociative Psychopathology is not listed in any gender list I have seen.
The rest is fine but this is a hard NO.
“Chronic Dissociative Psychopathology is not listed in any gender list I have seen.”
LOLOLOL!
No use “his or her” when you do not know the sex.
Well, argue it with hundreds of years of English usage.
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