ALTHOUGH NOT traditionally on many people’s list of most feared animals, one persistent otter made a brave attempt to change all that yesterday in a Co Clare town.
The battle between the otter and the town of Tulla began at approximately 12.30pm when Joe Burke – a farmer from nearby Broadford – entered Littleton Animal Feeds.
“I turned to Mike Hogan [owner of the store] and just said: ‘Is that an otter outside?’”
The two men left the shop to discover that an otter was indeed making its way down the street.
“It turned into a courtyard and we decided to trap it. We had three pallets for fertiliser with us so we blocked off the exit,” said Mr Burke.
The otter soon became aggressive as a large crowd gathered around.
“People were afraid to go near it – they were intimidated by him. There was a Tayto bag lying there and it had gotten its head into it and some people were saying he would choke so I decided I’d have to do something,” said Mr Burke
Using a thick bag made to hold animal feed, he eventually captured the otter, which he described as “quite vicious” before putting it into the back of his SUV to release it in a nearby lake.
However, not content to be defeated, the otter chewed through the bag, initiating round two.
“There was a small window broken in the back and he jumped out. Now he was out in the open country,” Mr Burke added. “He had the upper hand on us. He was well able to duck us.”
After a prolonged chase, the two men eventually threw a traffic cone over the animal.
“He was very strong and was trying to escape so I had to stand on the cone and Mike got a board and slipped it underneath. There was an air hole at the top so he was okay.”
When they arrived at the lake, almost an hour into the rescue, Mr Burke and Mr Hogan could have been forgiven for thinking their task was complete.
Unfortunately, the exhausted otter needed help one more time as he quickly sank with exhaustion when freed into the water. “We stayed with him there for another 15 minutes and then released him again,” said Mr Burke.