Thai woman condemned for eating bats on show
Thai social networks and medical personnel cried foul over a video clip of a female reviewer of exotic dishes eating bats for her Facebook page and TikTok channel.
Netizens, a veterinarian and a medical technologist expressed fear that a new round of diseases might hit the country after the woman posted the clip on her Facebook page on Monday.
The woman identified herself as Khru (teacher) Jui, without saying which school she teaches at. She posted the controversial clip on her Kin Saeb Nua Nua (Eating it Delicious and Hot) Facebook page. The page had 392,000 followers as of Wednesday afternoon.
In the clip, she is seen eating an entire bat which was boiled in a spicy soup. She spread its wings before tearing it apart and eating the creature part by part.
“Jui” said it was the first time she had eaten a bat. She said she felt the nails on its feet and it smelled like a rat: the skin was quite sticky, not crispy. The taste was acceptable, she added.
She insisted she was “not introducing any coronavirus from bats to the people” as residents in her neighbourhood also ate bats.
However, many Facebook users found all this unacceptable.
In comments under the post, many criticised her strongly for risking an outbreak of new diseases from bats.
Some demanded that the Education Ministry punish her if she was indeed a school teacher.
“When you get infected and cause an outbreak who will be in trouble? Not just yourself. In China, Covid originated from this kind of dish,” a woman commented.
“If you want to die, just die alone, don’t put others in trouble as well,” another commented.
“You should have more intelligence in making video content,” yet another comment said.
“The Education Ministry and the school where this teacher belongs should conduct an investigation. Was this kind of conduct appropriate?” one Facebook user asked.
On Monday, Jui commented under her post, saying she was “still alive” and the clip was shot two days earlier.
A day later, on Tuesday, Kaset Sutecha, a lecturer at Kasetsart University’s Veterinary Faculty, said he had warned several times before against eating bats.
Kaset said such a practice could cause outbreaks of new diseases as more than 60 types of viruses have been detected in bats that can jump to humans.
He reminded everyone that the Sars-CoV-2 virus that originated in Wuhan and spread to humans also came from bats.
Moreover, the lecturer said, bats are protected under Wildlife Protection Act BE 2562 (2019).
On Tuesday, medical technician Pakpoom Deshasdin, who owns the popular Panda Lab Doctor, criticised the influencer “for not learning from the Covid pandemic”.
He said although the bats were cooked, there was still a chance the virus could spread from the winged creatures to humans.
Pakpoom said bats are known to accumulate more than 60 types of viruses. He exhorted the influencer to meet doctors and check her blood as soon as possible to see if she has caught any virus.
The strong criticism prompted the influencer to remove the clip and the post from her page. By Wednesday, the post had disappeared.
On Wednesday, popular Buri Ram property developer Kiatidamrong Pakaya, 47, who once ate bullfrogs on show, said he found it too much to eat bats.
In May, Kiartidamrong rose to fame when he ate an entire steamed bullfrog in front of the camera.
“I was startled by Khru Jui’s clip. I hold up a white flag. I dare not eat such things for fear that they could be dangerous,” Kiatidamrong said.
