Blaming The Bats 63
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by
Zonk
from the kree-kree-off-into-the-night-searching-for-bananas dept.
from the kree-kree-off-into-the-night-searching-for-bananas dept.
d'alz writes "Bats have long been the subject of various conflicting theories. They have been linked with lethal viruses that cause Ebola hemorrhagic fever, SARS, Nipah or Hendra.
But of late researchers have taken a complete shift in these theories. They now claim that bats are being blamed for human mistakes. It now seems that these outbreaks could be a direct result of the encroachments that took place over the years in the rainforests." From the article: "Emerging viruses like the one that causes SARS are symptoms of the drastic, large-scale changes humans are making in the life of the planet. At a time of intense concern about avian flu, it is hardly controversial to argue that human health is linked to animal health. But the field challenges traditional academic divisions, especially the cultural divide between doctors and veterinarians."
It's not the people, it's the cows!?!!1111 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Great... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hypothetically at least, humans have the ability to reason and to distinguish between "good" acts and "bad" acts. Animals don't. Therefore while animals are essentially assigned the status of the criminally insane or children (not compentant to be judged for their actions) humans are assumed to be compentant. Therefore, yes, if a human kills animals, it's the humans fault, because the human made the choice to do so; if an animal kills a human, its the human's fault, because the human made choices that resulted in his death, or some other human caused the human or animal to be in the situation that the caused the first human's death and it is the fault of the second human.
That's the difference. You either assert that humans are the only ones capable of moral blame, or that animals have the same rights as humans, or alternatively that free-will does not exist and all, and we're just "watching" a movie.
I've personally been attacked by a rabid bat.. (Score:3, Interesting)
This was in Africa where normally bats will leave you alone and will fly away if they see people. This one looked a bit strange and when I walked past it dropped down onto me. Luckily for me it didn't bite and I managed to flip it off. The bat was obviously feverish and had the right symptoms.