A possibly rabid
beaver attacked Betsy Bent, a 67-year-old paddle-boarder, while she was pulling
herself across the surface of Beaver Lake (!) near Asheville, North Carolina
recently. "I saw a big splash, but I didn't see what the splash was from,”
Betsy said. "It came up under my board and knocked my board over, and
then it latched onto my leg and wouldn't let go. I didn't know what it was at
that time. I didn't think there was any 'Jaws' in Beaver Lake."
The beaver kept up the attack while
Bent was in the water after being knocked off her board, inflicting multiple
lacerations. "I was yelling, 'Help, I'm being bitten!'" she
said.” A very nice fisherman was
talking to me and motioning me to come over, and then it turned around and
attacked me again and latched onto my hand. Then it came around a third time
and latched onto my other hand." The angler helped beat the beaver off
her, and brought Bent to shore. She was transported to Mission Hospital for
medical care. "Beavers chew on logs, so I've got some pretty good
lacerations and staples and stitches," Bent said. Bent also had to go
through the rabies shot protocol, which means she was forced to endure a series
of painful shots over several days.
An Asheville Police Department's Animal
Control officer helped the Beaver Lake warden catch the animal after the
incident, which was reported at 3:24 p.m. "On Saturday, July 9, APD
Animal Services was called by the Beaver Lake Game Warden to assist in
impounding a beaver," a department spokeswoman said. Mike Carraway, a
wildlife biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said
it is unusual for beavers to attack humans.
Ms. Bent doesn’t want people to shy
away from the popular Asheville area lake. "We've lived just up the
road for 22 years," she said. "It's a wonderful lake. This is
just a bizarre accident. We’ll be back again."
Speculation as to the large, crazed,
rodent’s motive for the attack has been wide-ranging. Perhaps it was jealous of
the mode of transportation or envious of those possessing opposable thumbs.
Maybe it didn’t like the colors of the paddle board, or wanted it for its own
use.
In any case, this beaver’s bite was
worse than its bark.
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