They're furry and cute, but they're not your friends.
The Washington State Department of Health is warning people to steer clear of bats, the most common source of rabies exposure for people in this region.
So, listen up: Don't feed the bats. Don't chase them or trap them. Just keep your distance, and seek help if you're bitten.
"It's preventable, but rabies annually kills 55,000 people around the world, half of them children under age 15," according to a health department warning released Wednesday.
Rabies is nearly always fatal if it goes untreated, though medication administered soon after a bite can prevent the disease from developing.
That said, rabies is rare in Washington. The state has only identified two cases where humans have been infected by rabies during the past 20 years, though 148 people have already been treated for possible exposure to the disease this year.
State health officials report 74 of those treatments were made necessary by encounters with -- you guessed it -- bats. Most of the others resulted from bites by dogs or other animals.
Between 5 and 10 percent of bats tested every year in Washington have rabies, state officials said Wednesday. Raccoons, skunks and foxes are also often found to be infected.
There are three reasons health officials say people should seek immediate treatment for rabies:
* If you're bitten by or have contact with saliva of a bat or other potentially rabid animal.
* If you wake up to find a bat in the room, tent or area where you're sleeping.
* If there's a bat in a room with a child or adult who isn't capable of describing what happened.
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