A SIX-year-old boy was left with bruises after an octopus grabbed onto his arm and wouldn’t let go, according to his mother.
Britney Taryn went viral on TikTok with claims the octopus clung onto her son at the petting section of a Texas aquarium.
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The incident is said to have taken place at the at the San Antonio Aquarium on July 14.
Britney recounted how she and her son had visited the octopus many times before without any issues.
But on this occasion, the creature grabbed hold of the kid’s arm and refused to let go.
“He started saying, ‘Mom, it’s not letting me go,'” she said in her TikTok video recounting the events.
It would end up taking three adults to wrestle the kid free of the octopus’ grip.
“The octopus started to come out, up over the glass,” Britney told local station KSAT.
“My friend and I were not sure what to do.
“There’s no employees around so we started yelling for help.”
Britney added: “The employee came up and just said, ‘Oh, she’s super playful today.’ And then he could not get the octopus off.”
The employee ended up having to call two other staff members over to help release the child from the creature’s tentacles.
It took them five minutes to get the kid out of the octopus’ grasp.
Britney‘s son was left with purple suction cup bruises all the way up his arm.
San Antonio Aquarium has since posted a TikTok video in which an employee explains that this octopus can leave behind bruises – and that they should go away within 7 to 14 days.
However, the video does not reference the alleged incident with Britney‘s son.
Britney has said she doesn’t want anything to happen to the octopus – but wants to raise awareness of safety for children.
“I’m just worried something worse is going to happen,” she told KSAT.
“I don’t want anything to happen to any more kids, any adults.”
She added: “We would love to see [the octopus] at a rescue, where it can live out the rest of its life.”
“We would love to see it have a peaceful, untouched existence.”
Britney added that she and her son have since gone back to the San Antonio Aquarium and seen the same octopus.
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