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One of many three girls who was brutally attacked by a river otter in Montana final week has shared graphic images of her accidents alongside along with her account of the assault on Fb. In an in depth publish on Aug. 4, Jen Royce tells the story of how she and two buddies have been attacked by the wild otter whereas internal tubing on the Jefferson River, how they have been rescued, and the way she’s recovering from the expertise. Royce’s story can be discovered on the GoFundMe web page, which was created to cowl the ladies’s medical bills from their accidents.
Royce additionally took the chance to set the document straight, since she says that many social media customers have blamed her and the opposite two victims for upsetting the Aug. 3 assault. She and her buddies have been in the midst of a large stretch of river on the time, and that they weren’t making an attempt to get near the otters. “We didn’t even know the otter/otters have been there till we have been attacked,” she writes.
It’s unclear what number of otters have been concerned. Royce writes additional down in her publish that “the otters attacked us” however then repeatedly refers back to the attacking otter as “it.” Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks clarified in a press launch that a number of otters have been noticed, however that just one attacked the group. Regardless, Royce describes the one otter that attacked her as “vicious and relentless.”

“It bit my face in a number of locations, each of my ears, my arms, my fingers, my legs, my thighs, and my ankle,” Royce writes. “My buddies have been bit on the fingers and on their bottoms.”
She says all of them felt “helpless” treading water in the midst of the river. All their tubes had been popped, and she or he writes that each time she kicked the otter away, it might assault her elsewhere. By the point Royce swam to shore, the three girls had gotten separated.
“I used to be on the south facet of the river and had crawled up the hill, one good friend was out on the north facet by the railroad tracks, and my different expensive good friend was caught on a rock nonetheless within the river, not capable of get out since we didn’t know the place the otter/otters went.”
One of many girls was capable of name 911, they usually have been rescued by first responders roughly an hour later. Whereas Royce waited, she thought there was an actual probability she may by no means get off the river.
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“I used to be coated in blood, and it simply stored pouring out from my face and nostril,” she writes. “It was chilly. We have been moist. It was darkish … All we might do was scream and name out to at least one one other.”
Luckily, all of them made it off the Jefferson River that night time. Royce had probably the most extreme accidents of the three, and she or he was life-flighted by helicopter to a hospital in Bozeman.

“I can not start to elucidate the large reduction and the hysterical launch of tears realizing we weren’t alone and would quickly be on our approach out of HELL,” she writes.
On the hospital, Royce obtained rabies vaccines and had the injuries on her face flushed with saline. Medical doctors stitched up her ankle, leg, arms, fingers, and fingers. She additionally had surgical procedure on her face and ears.
“I’ve extra stitches in my physique than I can depend,” Royce writes. “In addition to my face, I’ve puncture wounds to my left ankle, each legs, again of my proper thigh, each arms, each fingers, and all fingers. My left ear is cut up in half from the highest to the underside and is being held along with some sort of yellow bandage and stitches on each side. However I’m fortunate, and I’m grateful, and I’m alive.”
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