[AGL] Re: Bats in the belfry

[Wayne Johnson]

Oh.  I think one phrase I recall from my conversation with the Texas Dept. Health so many years ago was...and I quote as best I can ...rabies was "endemic" to the local (Mexican Free-tail) bat population.  Endemic usually means "regularly found".  

If you have a "population" (of things, objects, etc.) numbering in the millions or tens of millions ... as you do with bats in Austin...then even a relatively small percentage...say 25%...becomes a very large number.  Something in the order, for Austin I should think, of a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand bats per person.  That most people don't encounter a bat in their daily lives hardly excuses ignorance of their (quite necessary and valued) presence.  When, in the early '60s, I walked downtown of a morning to my job with BBG&W, I would pass directly through the Capitol building and at least once a week there was a dead bat lying under the dome.  

Finally, even with my past and utterly dismal view of the "politics of tourism" I was still surprised to see that the "bat flight" had become an Austin "event".  When there is so little going on in a city...outside of SXSW/related music scene....the Chamber of Commerce/et al would likely think nothing about ignoring or actively suppressing "rabies in the bat population" stories.  (Hmmm. I think this type of political behaviour was nicely summarized some decades ago in "Jaws".) 

So far as I am concerned, the basic health and safety issues are still there and we are down to quibbling over "statistical probabilities".  Anyone who wishes to gamble with their lives should also look into Russian Roulette as a pleasant summer pasttime.  Better to be paranoid, than to be dead.  Unless, of course, people value their "opinions" more than their lives.  People who don't consult doctors or public health officials for answers to questions about the risk of personal exposure are, quite frankly, behaving recklessly and foolishly.  What is the problem with making a simple phone call?

To each their own.

Have a nice day.

wayne
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Karen Willis 
  To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 7:34 AM
  Subject: RE: [AGL] Re: Bats in the belfry


  I don't think you read the information, Wayne.  Bats do not "carry" rabies.  Bats can get rabies, like many other animals.  The percent is less than one half of one percent.  Bats die when they get rabies.  If 90 percent of the bats under Congress Avenue bridge had rabies, I'm sure they would be eradicated.

  Karen

   
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