Minnesota Officials Now Looking For Woman Who Handled Rabid Bat

I think that just about everyone knows the old saying, 'If you see a penny, pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck,' but that same rule of thumb doesn't apply to everything you find on the ground.

Take, for example, bats. They turn up on porches and in spooky decor every fall, but they're also the leading source of human rabies cases in the country, and health experts have been sounding the alarm as rabies cases climb across the state.

So when one turns up on a busy sidewalk, it's best to just leave it be and notify the police or city health department to take care of it.

I know that I'd never touch a bat under any circumstances because they seriously freak me out, but that's not the decision people recently made when they came upon a bat in Minneapolis.

Health Officials Looking For Woman After Rabid Bat Encounter

According to health officials, around noon on a Tuesday, a woman was seen crouching over a bat on a Hennepin Avenue sidewalk before putting it into a bag and handing it off to another passerby, who carried it in to be tested.

The health department described the woman as 25 to 30 years old, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with curly brown hair, walking a curly-haired dog that resembled a golden retriever. In other words, more than one person may have handled a rabid animal that afternoon.

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A warning then recently went up on light poles in downtown Minneapolis after that bat tested positive for rabies. The Minnesota Department of Health taped flyers to posts near the scene, hoping to reach one person in particular.

The notice, stamped with the state health department logo, is blunt. 'On Tuesday, September 15 at about 12 pm, a bat was found on the sidewalk on Hennepin Ave between N. Washington Ave and N. 3rd St,' it reads. 'The bat died and was sent for rabies testing. This bat tested positive for rabies.'

From there it gets specific. A woman was seen crouching over the bat and slipping it into a bag, described on the flyer as 'a 25-to-30-year-old white woman, about 5'5", with curly brown hair and a curly-haired golden retriever-like dog.'

The message to her is direct: 'If this was you, please call 911 and ask to be connected to Animal Care & Control.' Anyone who had contact can also reach the state at 651-201-5414.

This isn't a one-off oddity, either. It's at least the second rabid bat reported in the metro in a week; the city is rolling out discount pet vaccines to protect dogs and cats, and the health department is separately looking into a wildlife-removal business over how an animal was tested.

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Fall is prime time for bats, which is exactly why officials keep reminding people in Minnesota that if they ever come into direct contact with them, they should contact their doctor.

Why Rabies Is Nothing To Shrug Off

Here's the part that makes taking bat encounters seriously. Bat bites can be so small they're painless and invisible, so people don't always know they've been exposed.

Once symptoms appear, rabies is almost always fatal, but treatment started quickly after exposure is highly effective. That's the whole point of finding this woman before it's potentially too late.

So if you spot a penny on the sidewalk, sure, pick it up and pocket the luck. But if it's a bat, admire our little brown bats from a distance, leave it where it lies, and let the professionals handle the rest.