"Rabies Found in Wyoming School's Pet Bat"

[GreenPartyVoter]

RIVERTON, Wyo. (AP) - Catching a bat in a school basement and keeping it as a classroom pet is a great way to learn - about rabies.

Two staff members at Trinity Lutheran School are getting a weekslong series of rabies shots after a bat kept in a locked terrarium tested positive for the disease.

On May 9, seventh- and eighth-grade teacher Steve Coniglio used a stick and a bucket to capture the bat, which died two days later.

The bat had been displayed in classrooms and students gave it crickets, but Susan Tucker, head teacher at the central Wyoming school, said Coniglio made sure students did not handle the animal.

State and county health officials on Tuesday interviewed all 95 staff members and students at the school and decided that Coniglio and a teaching assistant who cleaned the cage after the bat died needed to be treated as a precaution, said Marty Stensaas, manager for Fremont County Public Health Nursing.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20070517/D8P695S02.html

[Annces]

1. Not too smart there

I once by a great miracle, decided to go for a walk right before a storm hit. I went about 1/2 mile, then turned to go home. While I was gone a tree limb had crashed into my window splattering glass across every square inch of the living room. That night a bat flew into my open window. Very surreal.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I've tangled with them once or twice myself. Nowdays I hear that if you are

asleep in a room with a bat or if you tangle with one you have to get the treatments, just in case.