The poor kids... and the poor other species of bats that will get killed

There's been an outbreak of rabies among Vampire bats in Brazil. The rabid bats have been attacking people in their homes while they sleep. Many of the victims are children.

I really wish that the article would have included some other facts about bats to help disspell the age old myth that all bats suck blood and have rabies. Humans are more likely to get rabies from a dog than a bat, but you don't see people poisoning dogs so that they when they go back to their packs they infect other dogs with the poison.

Only three species of bats are known to feed on blood. Most of the blodd that they get comes from livestock and other animals. Now the other gazillion species of bats? They feed on insects, fruit, pollen/nectar, fish and small rodents. In fact, in Northern Mexcio- well outside of the range of vampire bats- it is a common practice to throw molotov cocktails into bat caves to protect the towns from "rabid" bats while packs of trully rabid dogs roam the streets. When these cocktails explode, say goodbye to the bats that eat twice their weight in mosquiotoes every night and to the long-range migratory pollenators that maintain gene flow between northern and southern cactus populations.

See BAT CONSERVATION for more details.