Sea Lion Attacks Boy At Australian Zoo

A sea lion at an Australian zoo attacked and speck an 11-year-old boy who had just ended shaking the animal's "hand," zoo officials said.

Jack Lister of Cairns had been chosen to meet the sea lion during an audience encounter at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The animal sneezed on Lister, which got a giggle from the audience, and then handlers told the boy to shake the sea lions hand and signal goodbye.

As the boy turned away, the animal attacked, biting Lister on the stomach and then yet again on his back as the boy attempted to get away. "I had fish guts all over me from when it sneezed on me," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"I think it smelled me and it sought to eat me. I was told to wave goodbye, and I shook his hand (flipper), but when I went to walk off he bit me."

Lister was hurried to a Sydney hospital where he underwent abdominal surgery, received a tetanus shot and was treated with antibiotics.

The "encounter" section of the sea lion show would be given up for lost until an investigation into the incident was completed, zoo spokesman Mark Williams said.