Bat Attack Exposes Boys to Rabies

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Omaha, NE - Beware of bats! That warning comes from health and animal experts after a jarring report of a bat attack. The animal bit some boys during a sleep-over at a home in Sarpy County. The bat got to at least two of the four boys and now all of them are getting rabies shots.

Pam Wiese with the Nebraska Humane Society explains what happened. "One boy felt scratching on his leg and he jumped up," Wiese says. "Then the bat actually lighted on another boy's hand and bit him. It's hanging on his hand. The mom hears all the bedlam downstairs and goes down there and manages somehow to slam the bat in the door and get it behind the door and get all the kids out and get it off the little boy's hand."

Wiese says mom did the right thing by keeping the bat alive. It turns out the animal had rabies. All four boys are getting shots. Wiese says, "When you kill a bat, they're pretty small and often times you do so much damage, they can't be tested."

According to Nebraska Health and Human Services, so far this year nine bats tested positive for rabies. Last year 14 bats tested positive and in 2006, Nebraska had three rabid bats.

You might be seeing more of the critters. When it gets cold, bats bolt for the indoors. "We get a lot of bat calls in the Spring and Fall," Wiese says. "In the Spring, it's the babies waking up and leaving. In the fall, they're coming in to hibernate and spend a warm place in the winter time."

If you have a bat in your home you should call the Humane Society at 444-7800, Extension 1. If you have to capture a bat by yourself the Humane Society says you should wear gloves and try to use a piece of cardboard or towel to put the animal in a coffee can or bag.

The four boys are going to be okay.

Reported by Michelle Bandur;michelle@action3news.com