A Thai blogger is facing five years in jail after videoing herself eating a whole bat in a bowl of soup.
Phonchanok Srisunaklua had uploaded the 1 minute 40 second clip to her Gin Zap Bep Nua Nua (Eat spicy and delicious) YouTube channel.
Describing the bats as being ‘delicious’ and comparing them to ‘eating raw meat,’ she is then seen ripping the animals apart and dipping them in a spicy sauce called Nim Jam.
At one point the footage shows the food content creator holding up a whole bat to the camera and declaring ‘it has teeth’ before beginning to crunch on the bones and saying ‘the bones are soft’.
The video has outraged many viewers as they raised fears over health implications.
One said: ‘If you’re going to die, die alone. No one will blame you. But you’ll be damned if you start a pandemic.’
Another said: ‘You put yourself at risk. If you get sick don’t bother burdening doctors and nurses.’
Veterinarian Pattaraphon Manee-on, head of the wildlife health management group at the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said: ‘I was shocked to see it in the clip now.
‘Because the incident should not happen both in Thailand and around the world, it is very risky behavior, especially as bats have a lot of pathogens.’There is no proof that the hot water temperature will actually kill the germs.
Just touching the saliva, blood, and the skin is considered a risk.’
He added: ‘Besides the concern about the disease in bats, this woman could be guilty of breaking the Preservation and Protection and Wildlife Act, B.E. 2019, because bats are protected animals.’
According to some experts, bats are said to carry over 10,000 viruses that could be transmitted to humans and start another pandemic.
