Food blogger jailed for five years after video of her eating bat goes viral

A Thai woman has been sentenced to five years in jail after recording a now-viral video of her eating a whole bat.

Phonchanok Srisunaklua posted the clip on her Facebook page, ‘Kin Saeb Nua Nua’ (Eating it Delicious and Hot), which has over 390,000 followers.

In the video, Srisunaklua, while referring to herself as Khru (teacher) Jui, is seen picking a bat from a bowl where the other dead animals are floating in tomato soup.

She spreads its wings before tearing it apart to devour it, describing the bats as ‘delicious’ and comparing them to ‘eating raw meat’. She described how the bats nails smelled like a rat and its skin was sticky.

At one point, she blogger points a whole bat to the camera and tells viewers ‘it has teeth’ before beginning to crunch on the bones and saying, ‘the bones are soft’.

The video received a lot of backlash from internet users who raised concerns about the health implications of Srisunaklua’s actions.

But on Monday, Srisunaklua wrote she was “still alive” under her post, and she added that the video was shot two days earlier.

Local media reports that the blogger initially denied the charges made against her but later posted an apology video to “society, doctors, journalists, colleagues, family and friends,” saying that she was “not thinking.”

She will now face up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to 500,000 baht (approx. Ksh.1.7 million) for possession of protected wildlife carcasses and for crimes violating the Computer Crimes Act (2007).