Try to imagine what this feels like… someone takes you captive, you don’t know why. You don’t speak their language and you are powerless to escape. You have no idea what they want of you, and you are terrified.
Your captor locks you in a bathroom. This bathroom has a window covered with shade, but you are not allowed to open it to get fresh air or even look outside. There is a sink, but only your captor knows how to turn the water on. There is a toilet that you can eliminate, but only your captor decides when it should be flushed.
You get the same thing to eat day after day after day after day. When you don’t feel good no one knows how to help, so you suffer in pain. There are no pictures on the walls, no TV, no computer, no phones, and no friends. You have absolutely nothing whatsoever to help you pass the endless days and nights. If you are lucky you might have a companion, but otherwise, you are completely alone, and this is where you will spend every single day for the rest of your natural life.
This is what a bat feels when we take it into captivity.
I know we joke about bats being sky puppies in this community, but they are wild animals and they belong in the wild (or in specially designed sanctuaries if they are too injured to survive on their own).
If you ever see someone keep a bat as a pet, please try your best to educate them and let them know that Bat World will take their pet in to rehabilitate, no questions asked.
The quoted text seems like it could apply to any animal. I think a more effective argument is "You will likely get rabies and die."