Pet shop owner's narrow escape after a piranha decided it didn't want to be sold

A pet shop owner had a narrow escape when he was bitten by a piranha fish as he tried to sell it.

Dave Brown, 44, needed stitches to a deep wound after the fish sunk its sharp fangs into his thumb. It took a chunk out of him as scooped the animal into a bag at Holmbush Pet Centre in St Austell, Cornwall.

Dave had already tried to pick it up twice but the fiesty fish lunged at him on his third attempt and bit into his right digit.



Experts say he was 'very unlucky' to be bitten because piranhas only attack when they are hungry - and not in self defence.

Dave, of St Austell, said he only took in the six-inch fish as a 'one-off' because the previous owner was too scared to look after it. He said: 'It was the only piranha we have ever had and I don't think we'll be taking on another one.

'There was blood everywhere. Every time I had him in a plastic bag the fish would bite through it. He was quite a feisty one. When I went up to the desk at the hospital and said I had been bitten by a piranha, they looked at me in disbelief.'