Anonymous
(stock photo)
Source: Santa Barbara County Public Health Department
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department is seeking the public’s help in locating a person believed to be exposed to a rabid bat earlier this week in Santa Barbara. The person is described as a tall, slender, Caucasian female between the ages of 45 and 70 years old with short gray hair.
At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 two male individuals were approached by the woman at the corner of Sola Street and Anacapa Street in Santa Barbara near Alameda Park. She handed them a box containing a bat that had been captured and asked them to take the bat to Animal Services, which the two men did. The bat was sent for testing by County Animal Services and tested positive for the rabies virus.
If you are the person who captured the bat or have information regarding this incident, you are urged to call the Public Health Department at 805-681-5280 during or after business hours.
There is no threat to the public as this is an isolated incident. The Public Health Department advises the public to be aware of wild animals. Do not approach, handle, or feed wild and
unfamiliar animals, even if they appear tame. Any bite from a wild or unknown animal should be considered as a possible source of rabies. Rabies is a very serious disease and is almost always fatal in humans if not treated before symptoms appear.
Yikes! That’s a nasty looking bat. Here’s hoping the woman did not get bit.
Look ! It’s screaming Peach Fo Fi !
This is serious. She could die if she doesn’t get the rabies vaccine.
Bite not required, handling could transmit the virus. Hope she gets medical care.
Photo looks like another Edhat caption contest to me.
If the woman had been bit, then there is cause for worry. And one would think the woman would have told the two men if the bat had bit her. People always like to think the worst in such cases. My money’s on the woman being hale and hearty. And I thank her for caring and having compassion for animals.
I was in a campground once where someone tried to chase a bat out of a tent and got scratched… since they coudn’t tell if it was a claw or a tooth that scratched them it was off to the ER for the series of rabies shots.