Online assertions based on evidence that isn’t ‘ultra-sound’, claims group’s chairman
A leading group of chiropterologists has threatened unprecedented legal action against anyone who dares suggest that COVID-19 may have originated from bats.
The top UK-headquartered group, The Foundation for the Interests of Bats, or FIB for short, says it has a crack-team of defamation lawyers on “standby” who will take whatever action is deemed necessary to help protect the winged mammals’ already tarnished reputation.
FIB’s legal threat follows claims that the coronavirus may have first been transmitted to humans through the consumption of bats in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The group’s chairman, Bruce Wayne, told Legal Cheek it is ready and willing to bring claims in the High Court against individuals and news organisations that “perpetuate this false narrative and continue to besmirch the fine reputation of our flying friends”.
He continued: “They’ve been getting a bad reputation for years now and it’s been a real pain in the neck for everyone here at FIB. First, it was the whole blood-sucking vampire thing and then this comes along. The evidence as to bats being the source of the virus, in my opinion, is not ultra-sound, and poses more questions than it answers. Bats can’t stand up for themselves (they actually prefer to hang upside down), so we at FIB, through our lawyers, will do it for them.”
Legal Cheek understands FIB has instructed leading London law firm Barter Suck to handle any potential claim.
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