Bat Killed at Hockey Game, PETA Hacked Off

Bats transmit the rabies virus to humans. Rabies is fatal.

From the CDC:

Most of the recent human rabies cases in the United States have been caused by rabies virus from bats.

...Rabies can be confirmed only in a laboratory. However, any bat that is active by day, is found in a place where bats are not usually seen (for example, in a room in your home or on the lawn), or is unable to fly, is far more likely than others to be rabid.

Are bats usually seen during a hockey game being played at an indoor facility?

NO.

It was an unusual situation to have a bat flapping around during the Green Bay Gamblers hockey game on Tuesday night.

Obviously, the bat posed a potential threat to the players and the fans. The threat was addressed by three members of the Gamblers. Of course, PETA is ticked off.

From WLUK:

"Definitely never seen something like that," said Gamblers goalie Steve Summerhays. "That bat was behind me and I was trying to watch the play. I'd rather see a guy coming at me than a bat cruising behind my neck."

Summerhays says he did not even see his team score on the other end.

Head coach Jon Cooper then made the call to send three of his players to take care of the situation with sticks in-hand.

"This has obviously turned into Batgate," said Cooper. "But the rabies fear was a big one."

The team says it has received some criticism for killing the bat.

"My thought was the welfare for obviously our players but more importantly it was the welfare of the thousands of fans in the crowd," said Cooper. "If that bat would have gotten out of the ice surface it could have been a scary situation."

While People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says the Gamblers should have made a more humane attempt.

"This might have been an annoyance but it was also a living being," said Tori Perry, the Emergency Response Manager of Cruelty Investigations for PETA. "If you have an animal that's somewhere he's not supposed to be, you call animal control. It's not just something where you just go, 'Oh , we'll take some hockey sticks to him.'"

Dr. Lynn Lulloff with Aurora BayCare says the team did the right thing.

"If you ever have a bat and you are exposed to it, you should kill the bat and bring it in for analysis," said Lulloff.

..."Basically if you get the rabies virus you die," said Dr. Lulloff. "There are rare cases where they are able to save someone who gets rabies, but most of the time it's a fatal disease."

PETA says that is no reason to [kill] the animal.

"The incidence of rabies in the bat population is actually estimated by professionals to be less than one half of one percent," said Perry. "It's not as prevalent as some people think. You can actually net them and release them out."

This bugs me.

Yes, the bat was a "living being," but it's utterly irresponsible and just twisted to equate the welfare of a bat with that of human beings.

The PETA crowd doesn't seem to understand the difference between animals and people.

I don't want any animal to be abused, but I also don't want a crowd of people to be threatened with a fatal disease.

I agree with Dr. Lulloff. The team did the right thing. It was not safe to have a bat flying around inside, and netting the bat to release it wasn't a reasonable option given the situation.

Here's another case of wacko activists whining inappropriately. Their values are screwed up.


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Video.