Robin: Holy bat-danger, Batman, people are upset that bats are getting in their homes.
Batman: Not to worry, Robin, I'm on the bat-phone as we speak with the Bat-Tastrophy Control Center.
The above thought popped into my head after reading Game Commission Director Carl Roe's comments in the Aug. 20 Mirror. It seems Roe is saying if bats are protected (as an endangered species), you should leave them alone under any circumstances. So if you have bats in your roof and your roof leaks, leave the bats alone and the roof leak. Water can ruin ceilings, walls, carpet, etc. It can also cause mold.
Years ago, you would go to the country to see a crow. No more, Heckel and Jeckel (crows from an old cartoon) are alive and well in Altoona. They migrated here. If there were no bats to help control insects, they too could migrate. The woods would be overpopulated. There's no easy answer.
While bats have an important purpose, we don't want them hanging from the kitchen light, watching us eat breakfast. You can't have them fluttering in front of the TV when Monday Night Football is on.
Bats are not aggressive here; they don't try to bite people. The only ones who think bats are not ugly are other bats.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is going to spend $500,000 to study bats. People have been studying bats for hundreds of years. What don't they know?
For that amount of money, I hope this doesn't become a Bat-Ripoff. Why don't they spend that money controlling a real pest, pigeons?
Dennis C. Shore
Altoona
