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Otter killed after biting woman who was shooting video of it

Laurie Nevins told the Knox VillageSoup she did nothing to provoke the river otter that charged across Sandy Beach in Rockland and bit her in the ankle and foot.

ROCKLAND, Maine (AP and VillageSoup) — Authorities say they shot and killed an otter that bit a woman who was recording it in a seaside Maine city.

The Knox VillageSoup reports the otter bit the woman's leg Wednesday while she was taking the video of it coming ashore on Sandy Beach in Rockland. The animal was running around with children on the beach.

The woman was treated for injuries at a nearby hospital. Police and Maine Marine Patrol officers were able to locate the otter a short while later and killed it. The animal's body was taken to the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention on Thursday for a rabies test.

The VillageSoup spoke with Laurie Nevins, the woman who was bitten by the animal. She told the newspaper she did nothing to provoke the river otter that charged across the beach and bit her in the ankle and foot.

"I always thought otters were friendly," she said the next day in an interview with the VillageSoup at Megunticook Campground in Rockport.

Nevins of Myrtle Beach, S.C., has been visiting the Midcoast as part of an RV trip with her husband, Daniel, and their friends, Westley and Christine Marshall. They went to Sandy Beach in Rockland's South End during a sunny day to collect sea shells and look for sea glass.

There were a number of children and parents on the beach enjoying the warm weather that afternoon when a river otter came ashore. She said it started chasing children around the beach.

"The thing was going crazy chasing them around," she said.

► Read more at VillageSoup.com

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