Cruel Bat Research at Texas A&M

Click here http://www.batworld.org/wall_of_shame/TXAMCruelResearch.html
to read our position statement. Please send an e-mail to sanctuary@batworld.org
if you would like to have your group added.


In the fall of 2008 we were alerted to a critical situation regarding cruel and unnecessary research being conducted by Dr. Christopher Quick at Texas A&M University. This research involves pallid bats, a small insectivorous bat about 3" in length. Four of these bats were injured during the research and can no longer fly well enough to be released. Thankfully -rather than being euthanized- these bats were retired to Bat World Sanctuary at the urging of one of the assistants involved in the research. An agreement was subsequently made for the retirement of the entire colony to Bat World when the research concluded. Unfortunately, we now have solid reason to believe that Dr. Quick has no intention of keeping his word, and feel the remaining bats will be used in this barbaric research until they die.

Please note that the eye witness account below contains graphic and heart wrenching testimony by individuals who were directly involved in this research, and who are now working to help free these bats from further suffering.

Beene' the first pallid bat to be
retired to Bat World Sanctuary from Texas A&M University.



Eye WITNESS ACCOUNT:

I am in need of your assistance with a critical matter involving a dwindling colony of pallid bats in a remote location in West Texas. These bats are continuing to be subjected to cruel experiments and housing once they are captured and placed into captivity. The following information outlines the years of cruelty that I personally witnessed.
CLICK HERE TO READ MY SWORN AFFIDAVIT

Dr. Christopher Quick, a biomedical engineer, heads this research currently taking place at Texas A&M University, where he has been allowed to perform experiments on pallid bats for several years. He captures bats from a roosting site which the bats have been safely using for over 20 years. As a result of the removal of so many bats, a steady decrease in the population has occurred. In the past few years he has been allowed to take over 50 pallid bats, the majority of them females. Consequently, over 40 female pallid bats were not allowed to give birth to one pup a year for over four years, resulting in the loss of 160 bats within a four year time span. Many of these pups would have also reproduced during this time.
Excluding a few bats that died as a direct result of stress, these experiments are not entirely terminal. As a result, the bats have been subjected to an unnatural environment long-term, and forced to work during the day when they should be asleep. They are exposed to up to 15 different types of drugs, alcohol and periodic painful medical procedures without sedation. They are used in experiments for up to six hours per day. Witnesses have seen the bats struggling for so long during experiments that they eventually began urinating blood due to the stress of the experiment.

One of the worst aspects of this research involves a rectal probe. The rectal probe causes bleeding and tearing of the rectum and causes such high levels of stress that the bats often self mutilate by chewing on its own arm or rectum in order to try and free itself. I witnessed bats urinating blood after this procedure, as well as rapid breathing and gnashing of teeth. The rectal probe is very rigid and made out of steel. While it is inserted using lidocaine, a short-term numbing agent, the bat is oftentimes in the box, laying in its back with the rectal probe inserted, for more than 30
A pallid undergoing an experiment under Dr. Quick's care. The bat is on its back, restrained in a Plexiglas box. The bat's wing is unnaturally stretched out and then held in place with weighted cotton swabs. The hot lens of the microscope is aimed at the delicate wing tissue for hours at a time, oftentimes causing burns.
(Photo credit: http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/cquick/BatLab/)





minutes at a time. It is not uncommon for a bat to cry out during the entire procedure. The bat is placed into the box restrained, with the rectal probe inserted, then its body is heated to see how high the bats body temperature would rise. Recordings are taken to see how long it took the bat's body temperature to go back down to baseline temperature. With the exception of Dr. Quick, everyone, including the grad students, hates this experiment. When I was with Dr. Quick in the room, he would make the bat stay in the experiment box even after the experiment was over just to play around with the microscope. He would look at the bats wing under the microscope, and I would tell him that the rectal probe cord was not long enough for him to be moving the bat around. A few times he moved the bat so much that he caused tension on the probe, causing the bat to cry out in agony. It was not until I stepped in and said enough was enough that he would grudgingly stop.

Full article:http://www.batworld.org/wall_of_shame/TXAMCruelResearch.html

Bats are dying from white-nose syndrome!Please Take Action Now!

In February, biologists surveying wintering bats in southern Vermont's Aeolus Cave -- once the largest bat hibernation site in all of New England -- witnessed a gruesome scene: Dead and dying bats piled up on the cave floor in drifts of bat corpses two and three bodies deep.

Bats are dying by the hundreds of thousands across eastern North America, and the disease that's killing them -- white-nose syndrome -- shows no sign of slowing down. It's likely that this fatal, fast-spreading sickness will soon be killing bats in the Midwest and the South, home to some of the most significant bat hibernation sites in the world. Left unchecked, white-nose syndrome could spread even further to populations in the western United States and to bats in other countries.

Biologists predict that we may lose several bat species in the next few years, including several species already listed as federally endangered due to pre-existing threats from habitat destruction, pesticide poisoning, and direct killing stemming from human ignorance and prejudice.

Despite the bad rap they sometimes get, bats are vital to ecosystem health, and therefore to our own survival. Many bats are voracious insect-eaters and have been shown to curb populations of insects harmful to agriculture and forestry, while other species are crucial plant pollinators. Losing bats would be devastating for other wildlife, ecosystems, and humans.

Lack of funding and an inability to deal with fast-moving ecological emergencies have stalled an appropriate response to this very real crisis. Please, take a moment now to send a message to your members of Congress and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to urge immediate action on white-nose syndrome. We must act now to save bats -- before it's too late.



Click the title to find out more and take action.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27148

If you have trouble following the link, go to http://salsa. democracyinactio n.org/o/2167/ t/5243/campaign. jsp?campaign_ KEY=27148.



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Sample letter:

Subject: Save Bats From White-nose Syndrome and Extinction

A biological meltdown is occurring before our eyes. The survival of North American bats, including several federally listed endangered species, is at stake. A deadly, newly emergent disease called white-nose syndrome has swept nine eastern states over the last two winters, killing bats where they overwinter -- sometimes wiping out entire hibernation sites. To date, more than 1 million bats are estimated to have died from the disease.

At this point, white-nose syndrome shows no signs of slowing its spread across the country, wiping out insect-eating bat populations along the way. The disease's potential implications for ecosystem health, agriculture, forestry, and even public health are enormous.

I am deeply concerned that white-nose syndrome could bring about the extinction of several bat species in the United States before scientists have a chance to determine the disease's cause or develop a cure.

Better funding for research, coordination, and management is the most pressing need in the effort to save bats from white-nose syndrome. Multiple federal and state agencies as well as private institutions are trying to cope with the disease, but none have the resources to deal with a threat of this magnitude. As the disease spreads into more states, the situation is becoming increasingly complicated and dire.

The Department of the Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and USGS/National Wildlife Health Center are the lead federal agencies in responding to the bat crisis. The Center for Biological Diversity and other national and regional conservation groups sent a letter on April 10, 2009 to Secretary Salazar urging him to take action as quickly as possible, including appointing a full-time white-nose syndrome coordinator; establishing a plan for controlling or minimizing the spread of the syndrome based on current knowledge; and examining the possible tools for implementing greater protective measures for white-nose syndrome-affected and non-affected bat populations, including the use of federal statutes such as the Endangered Species Act.

A rapid response system is also needed for this and future fast-moving biological crises. The threat posed to American agriculture by colony collapse disorder, for example, underscores the need for a swifter, more efficient, and better-funded system for addressing newly emerging wildlife diseases and ecological threats.

Please lend your support to immediate, emergency funding to address white-nose syndrome and the protection of imperiled bats. Agriculture, forestry, and public health are at stake; the future of America's wildlife heritage hangs in the balance.



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Please take action by May 30, 2009.

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