VIDEO: Bat interrupts RoughRiders game, killed by Green Bay Gamblers

*** WARNING *** GRAPHIC *** VIDEO SHOWS BAT AS IT IS KILLED ***

Found at Sporting News blog: And You Thought the PETA People Were Hacked Off About Manu Ginobili

PETA responds (from FOX 11):

"This might have been an annoyance but it was also a living being," said Tori Perry, the Emergency Response Manager of Cruelty Investigations for PETA. "If you have an animal that's somewhere he's not supposed to be, you call animal control. It's not just something where you just go, 'Oh , we'll take some hockey sticks to him.'"

Later, as this Associated Press story:

US hockey players dispatch stray bat

ASHWAUBENON, Wisconsin (AP) - An American junior hockey team is under fire from animal rights activists for killing a bat that flew into its arena during a game.

Coach Jon Cooper of the Green Bay Gamblers in Wisconsin on Wednesday defended his decision to send three of his players to go after the bat with sticks in hand. The Gamblers were playing the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders on Tuesday night when the bat showed up.

Tori Perry of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says the team should have tried to net the animal and release it.

But Cooper tells WLUK-TV the incident has turned into "Batgate," and says his concern was protecting the players and the hundreds of fans in the arena from any threat of rabies.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.