Tom wrote:
Q: Will bat's bite my dog and give them rabies?
A: Yes They will.[/url]
Eh...not really.
From Bat Conservation Organization's Public Health FAQ
http://www.batcon.org/home/index.asp?id ... SubPage=62
How dangerous are bats?
Bat rabies accounts for approximately one human death per year in the United States. Thus, some people consider bats to be dangerous. Nevertheless, dogs which often are considered "man's best friend," attack and kill more humans annually than die from bat rabies in a decade. Statistically speaking, pets, playground equipment, and sports are far more dangerous than bats. Clearly, bats do not rank very high among mortality threats to humans. Nevertheless, prudence and simple precautions can save lives.
Do large bat populations lead to increased incidence of rabies transmission to humans?
The largest urban bat populations consist almost exclusively of colonial species, and there is no evidence linking them to increased transmission to humans. Tens of thousands of people have closely observed the emergences of 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats at the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas each summer for over 16 years without incident. In fact, though Austin, San Antonio, and several other Texas Hill Country towns likely support the highest bat densities in America, they have recorded no human cases of bat-transmitted rabies.
Are bats likely to cause rabies outbreaks in other wildlife or in domestic animals?
There is no evidence that rabies from bats has ever triggered an outbreak in other animals. It occasionally does spill over into other species, causing individual animals to die, but even this is apparently rare. Despite the fact that numerous carnivores gather to feed on the 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats at Bracken Cave, Texas, no outbreaks of rabies are known from this source. No transmission from bats to dogs is known to have occurred, though rare cases of transmission to cats have been documented. The presence or absence of bats is irrelevant to the fact that all dogs and cats should be vaccinated.
Is it safe to put up bat houses?
Statistically, it's safer than owning a dog or planting flowers. Flowers attract bees whose stings account for far more human fatality than bats. Just banning bicycles or swimming pools would be hundreds of times more effective in saving lives, but how safe do we really want to be?