nothing of the rights of new yorkers to do as they please, eg ny const art1 sec 3
the pontiff may say treat the ortnifox church with resoect but a olyte andrew holy cuomo close the holy church of nassau otb on his easter sunday!
Sunday, April 12, 2020
| Track Code | Track Name | Entry | Scratch | 1st Post ET | 1st Post Local | Time Zone | Stakes Race(s) | Stakes Grade | T.V. Indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SA | SANTA ANITA PARK | 72 | 48 | 3:00 PM | 12:00 PM | PDT | |||
| SUN | SUNLAND PARK | 168 | 24 | 2:30 PM | 12:30 PM | MDT | Mt. Cristo Rey H. | ||
| TAM | TAMPA BAY DOWNS | 72 | 0 | 12:35 PM |
Winifred Frick, the chief scientist at a bat conservation society, was picking up her son from a theater troupe in Santa Cruz, Calif., just before lockdown when a helper there asked: Why have bats done this to us?
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“I set her straight,” said Dr. Frick, an ecology and biology research professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who, among other things, pointed out that humans are the ones spreading the virus.
It’s not a great time to be a bat lover. Some scientists have named bats as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic and the mammal is under suspicion across the world. Long used to countering images of sinister, bloodsucking rodents, this nocturnal animal’s tightknit group of fans is now facing a tough new challenge in going to bat for bats.
Being a bat fan has always required a defensive posture. In medieval Europe, folklore painted bats as satanic, while the fictional Dracula sealed its image as a vampire. In more recent decades, bats have been accused of passing on a string of deadly viruses.
Pteropus hypomelanus on Tioman Island.
PHOTO: SHEEMA ABDUL AZIZ
Bats as the underdog, and their seemingly mysterious ways, are often cited by their fans as feeding the attraction. Bat boosters say they had begun to turn around negative stereotypes. Then coronavirus came, creating a bat backlash.
Some scientists believe the new coronavirus came via bats, who passed it to another animal which then infected humans at a live market in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak first erupted. China disputes that scenario.
Dr. Frick and other bat specialists admit the species carries various types of coronavirus but they say there is no definitive proof that bats transmitted the current virus to humans. Either way, they say, humans are being infected by other humans, not bats.
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No matter—bat enthusiasts are being berated on social media. On Twitter,last month’s 17th annual bat appreciation day trended high for the first time amid sharp criticism and jokes about bats’ alleged role in the pandemic and as their fans came out to show some love during a tough time for bats.
Madison Lei stumbled on bat-lovers’ devotion by joking on bat appreciation day that she would kill a bat every time somebody liked a post that praised the animal’s role as pollinators and controllers of insect populations.
“Apparently there is a group of people that are die-hard bat people, and even in the middle of a global pandemic they are willing to go after perfect strangers,” she said, after being called out by bat lovers on the social-media app.
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Texas-based bat conservationist Merlin Tuttle said bat-lovers have contacted him to say their neighbors don’t want them to put up bat houses, artificial roosts much like bird houses, for fear the animals bring disease.
Mr. Tuttle said he came across bats at an “early point” in his life and was intrigued by the misconceptions about them. “I found that they are the least known and the most misunderstood of animals, and that attracted me.” People say all kinds of things about bats, he said, adding “it’s like being told there are flying rattlesnakes out there.”
Some of Sheema Abdul Aziz's bat memorabilia.
PHOTO: SHEEMA ABDUL AZIZ
During a February interview about her conservation work with bats in Malaysia, Sheema Abdul Aziz was asked whether people can catch Covid-19 from eating fruits pollinated by bats. Bats are considered key pollinators for hundreds of plant species.
“The answer is NO, of course,” Dr. Sheema said in an email.
Dr. Sheema can remember the exact moment she fell in love with bats. It was 17 years ago, when she held a species Kerivoula intermedia, or a vesper bat, in her hand. “It was a life-changing experience for me,” she said.
Sometimes, people call Dr. Sheema, who collects bat memorabilia, Batgirl or Batwoman. She isn’t fond of any bat-related comic book character, particularly Batman.
Nathaniel Marshall's collection of books on his nightstand.
PHOTO: NATHANIEL MARSHALL
“His entire persona and shtick is based on fear of bats...so he’s done quite a bit of scaremongering himself,” she said.
Nathaniel Marshall watched in frustration as his favorite animal took flak during the coronavirus outbreak.
But when the pope got involved in April, tweeting “When we are in a state of sin, we are like ‘human bats’ who can move about only at night,” Mr. Marshall, a plumber from Atlanta, felt enough was enough. He started a Twitter account called Give Bats a Break.
“On the contrary Holy Father...bats are not under the cover of night committing crimes for which it should be ashamed, but providing invaluable services to our ecosystems and communities,” he responded to the pope on Twitter.
The Vatican didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Marshall’s Twitter account has become a rallying point for bat fans everywhere. He uses it to dispute negative stereotypes: “That they are rats with wings, they suck blood, they carry rabies, and they get into people’s hair,” he said.
For as long as Mr. Marshall can remember, he has loved bats. His bedroom walls were papered with posters of them, he had bat toys, and would seek to get them into every school project, no matter the subject. His favorite has always been Tomes’ sword-nosed bat, a Latin American species that he describes as having a face like a Gothic cathedral.
Bats aren’t classified as rodents. And 99% of global rabies cases are linked to dogs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the known 1,400 species of bats, only three consume blood, according to Dr. Frick and other scientists.
“Bats are not interested in flying into your hair,” according to Neighbourhood Bat Watch, a group of Canadian wildlife conservation groups and biologists. “They may fly close to you in search of insects but their amazing use of echolocation will prevent them from landing on you.”
Dr. Frick, the California bat conservationist, describes the global bat lover’s community as “almost cultish.”
She met her husband, an environmental consultant who specialized in bats, while working with the animals. Their home is full of pictures of bats and Christmas presents to the family are “inevitably bat-themed.” Recently, Dr. Frick’s mother gifted her a bat-themed set of plates, she said.
“Bats have always had a bad rap,” she said. “And we have a lot of setting straight to do.”
Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com
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