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From: chase@Ozona.orc.olivetti.com (David Chase)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.misc,misc.consumers.house,rec.gardens
Subject: Re: rabid bats
Summary: it's not THAT bad
Message-ID: <23336@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Date: 8 Jun 88 22:14:44 GMT
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Reply-To: chase@Ozona.UUCP (David Chase)
Organization: Olivetti Research Center, Menlo Park, CA
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> Bats are also notorious carriers of rabies. It'd just take one rabid
> bat, then next would be the neigborhood pets, and so on.

I don't think it's that bad.  There were a fair number of rabid bats
floating around Tampa when I was a kid (I remember a bunch ended up
dead on a friend's driveway once) but I don't recall anyone getting
rabies from bats (though we damn sure didn't go near any dead ones
that we found).  Neighborhood pets should be immunized against rabies
anyhow (and should be tagged).  To put things in proportion, compare
cases and deaths from rabies and encephalitis over the past ten years.
I don't think they're cuddly and cute, but I'll take bats any day.
Watch out instead for wild dogs and cats, skunks and raccoons.  If the
animal doesn't run from you, run from it (simple mnemonic from my
childhood that applies equally well to poisonous snakes, rabid dogs,
and alligators).

David Chase
Olivetti Research Center, Menlo Park