chase@Ozona.orc.olivetti.com (David Chase) (06/09/88)
> 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
gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch) (06/10/88)
chase@Ozona.UUCP (David Chase) writes: >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). Actually, _walk_, do not run, to the nearest exit. Sudden movement attracts attention and often pursuit. Many animals can move faster than a human being for short distances -- for instance, I have clocked a brown bear at > 35 mph for two or three hundred yards. Besides rabies, some wild species (squirrels, for example) carry bubonic plague which supposedly can be transmitted to humans by flea bites. I don't know if bats are in this category.