Response to the proposal to exterminate bats due to Covid-19

On April 5, a guy named John Carlin published an article in La Vanguardia that literally said atrocities that could be taken from a 1920 publication:

“Now, there is one thing that scientists do know. They have well researched this. That the starting point and the great hotbed of these viruses that are so harmful to humans is the bat, a flying mammal that lives on all six continents. Therefore, since what most distinguishes us from other animals is our predatory capacity, perhaps we should get to work and do what we do best: undertake a global campaign to exterminate bats from the face of the Earth. Let no one be scandalized. It wouldn't be anything new. Humanity has been extinguishing species since long before industrialization, even before the discovery of fire.
In English bats are called bats. I propose baticide as a temporary solution to the problem that plagues us. It shouldn't be so difficult for the species that invented the atomic bomb and the gas chambers. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe ending the bats would generate another natural catastrophe. I don't know. I know even less than scientists.”

What thinking head can propose an extermination not of a species, not of a family, but of the entire order Chiroptera. Wise and thoughtful proposal, which only causes outbreaks of hysteria in certain communities with little access to verified information, as happened in Peru not long ago:

They kill 300 bats in Peru for mistakenly believing that they can be infected with the virus #COVID19.

There is ONLY one solution to this:

Let the bats and other animals live peacefully in their habitat, without disturbing them.https://t.co/1V8kd5Bf4v

— PETA Latino (@PETA_Latino) March 30, 2020

Let's analyze the amount of nonsense proposed:

1) This John first says that “scientists have it well researched”:

John, the only thing that has been said so far about COVID-19 is that its origin may be linked to a “wet market” where live and dead wild animals are sold, so it is assumed that it surely originated in an animal, still unknown. determine, since emerging diseases usually have their origin in infectious agents specific to animals, which adapt to human beings and evolve, acquiring the ability to be transmitted between people. But BEWARE, nothing official has been published about this virus coming from animal samples from said market.

Official data DO NOT support the hypothesis exposed in the media that the origin of the virus is a bat with the pangolin as an intermediate host, since we would need additional studies to ensure this fact.

2) Given the daring proposal of John Carlin, who proposed “baticide as a temporary solution to the problem that plagues us.”

Tremendous audacity from someone who publishes in one of the most important newspapers in Spain. John Carlin, we suggest you count up to 3 before publishing, and your supervisor, a greater critical eye, since even if the origin was a bat or any other animal, these NOW play no role in the transmission of COVID-19, since It is transmitted between people.

A critical eye with little thought would have noticed that:

1) There are NO bats or pangolins in hospitals.
2) Governments have not prohibited bats from leaving their caves (there must be a reason).
3) The WHO would not have proposed the use of masks or washing hands several times a day. Or perhaps the reason is that people touch the bats every time they go out to shop at the supermarket?

3) The individual named John dared to say the following:

“It wouldn't be anything new. “Humanity has been extinguishing species since long before industrialization, even before the discovery of fire.”

Which denotes a total lack of respect for the rest of the species, apologizing for the scourge of speciesism. No species is above another to propose the extermination of an entire order.

It's time we start listening to them.

You can prevent the next global pandemic by becoming #veganx.

Protect humans and other animals from devastation: https://t.co/YeVDonm11W pic.twitter.com/8qXp55MpTj

— PETA Latino (@PETA_Latino) April 1, 2020

Friend John, now that the Spanish and Italians are the countries with the most infected by number of inhabitants, the rest of the nations should propose the extermination of those who have said nationalities. Or perhaps you are one of those who think that health personnel should be confined to remote places since they are considered possible carriers of the virus?

As the virologist Juan Emilio Echevarría mentions:

“Regardless of the source of this pandemic, illegal trade and the sale of wild animal species without sanitary control are clear causal factors.”

What is clear is that we must eradicate these types of animal markets from the face of the Earth and, of course, comments and mentalities like those of this man.

And, having said that, you know that when all this happens, you have to visit one of those pilgrimage places where there are experiences dedicated to bat watching.

In addition, Nattule is going to carry out a conservation project for bats in southern Spain together with the Stride with the nocturnal lepidopterans on which they feed, of which we will advance details in the month of July.