Beloved otter at east Tennessee park dies after eating food tossed by visitors

A “cheerful” otter known for playing with toys in his pool has died in Tennessee after eating food tossed by visitors, the Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium said.

Otto was about 2 years old and came to the 3,350-acre nature preserve from a North Carolina animal rehabilitation facility, park officials said on Facebook.

The “beloved” otter died Thursday at the University of Tennessee Animal hospital, the park said.

“Otto the otter fell ill after park guests threw food into his enclosure that his body could not tolerate,” said the post. “A cheerful creature, he could often be found swimming or playing with toys in his pool, even when it was snowing outside.”

Feeding animals in the park is prohibited “for exactly this reason,” park officials said. “Human food is often intolerable and, in this case, even harmful to our animals.”

A necropsy will be performed to pinpoint an exact cause of death, officials said.

The park is a nature preserve, wildlife sanctuary and planetarium in Kingsport, located in the northeast corner of Tennessee.

Otto was 9 months old when he came to the park in October 2017 from a North Carolina animal rehabilitation facility, said a park Facebook post.

“The facility cared for Otto and his sibling after they lost their parents in the flood,” park officials said.

“The hope was to release them back into the wild, but the pups had lost their fear of humans, so Otto found a new home with us at Bays Mountain Park.”

The park’s Facebook post about Otto’s death has gotten more than 1,000 reactions in 12 hours, including some from people who expressed anger that the culprits who contributed to his death will not be punished.

“I really think cameras on all the animal enclosures might be necessary so that when something like this happens the people responsible can be punished and banned from the park,” wrote Kalani Ann Odum on Facebook. “How heartbreaking. The idea that whoever did it could possibly come back to see the animals they clearly have no respect for makes my stomach hurt.”

This story was originally published May 31, 2019 at 7:45 AM.