{"id":851197,"date":"2026-09-17T17:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T17:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851197\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T17:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T17:56:13","slug":"live-bats-with-rabies-invade-florida-county-freaking-out-people-and-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851197\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Bats With Rabies Invade Florida County, Freaking Out People And Pets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                          Rabies-Infested Bats<br \/>\n                          Attack Polk County, Florida &#8230;<br \/>\n                          People, Pets On Edge<\/p>\n<p>\n                                                                        Published<br \/>\n                              September 17, 2026<br \/>\n                            8:18 AM PDT<br \/>\n                                                                      |<br \/>\n                                                                Updated<br \/>\n                                  September 17, 2026<br \/>\n                                9:00 AM PDT\n                                    <\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260917_af840f0a40f04e4c9d8968c729c8115a\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:4929f681-cf2c-43ee-bd15-7b5383035827\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/af840f0a40f04e4c9d8968c729c8115a_md.jpg\" alt=\"beware of bats polk county florida getty 1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Live bats with rabies are flying around a county in Florida &#8230; and it&#8217;s driving locals and their pets more than a little batty!<\/p>\n<p>TMZ has learned that 6 rabies-infested bats have been haunting residents and their cats and dogs in Polk County since March &#8230; and it&#8217;s only getting worse.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent interaction occurred this week when a woman saw what she thought was a dead mouse on the ground &#8230; but it turned out to be a DEAD BAT!!!<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Luckily, no humans have been bitten by the flying rabies carriers &#8230; but some animals haven&#8217;t been so lucky.<\/p>\n<p>The Polk County Sheriff&#8217;s Office tells us &#8230; several cats and dogs that interacted with the bats ended up bitten and now have rabies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260917_2fac4e277594404bbd1d10d203a74069\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:4929f681-cf2c-43ee-bd15-7b5383035827\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2fac4e277594404bbd1d10d203a74069_md.jpg\" alt=\"bat press release pasco county florida 1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>A sheriff&#8217;s spokesperson said all of the infected animals had to be vaccinated and quarantined at their family homes &#8230; and PCSD published the above photo in a warning to residents.<\/p>\n<p>The spokesperson also told us the bats&#8217; carcasses were sent to a Tampa facility for rabies testing, before the little fellas were presumably destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>One by one, Polk County is trying to clear up their bat s*** problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabies-Infested Bats Attack Polk County, Florida &#8230; People, Pets On Edge Published September 17, 2026 8:18 AM PDT&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-851197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}