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WARD'S NATURAL SCIENCE KILLS
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 We
were recently alerted to bat specimens being sold in jars by
companies such as necromance.com and post mortemstudiorental.com,
and traced the source of these bats to a popular science company
used by teachers known as Ward’s Natural Science. We
purchased one of these bats and discovered the label was shared by
both Wards and Science Kit & Boreal Laboratories, see photo left (click here for a close-up). Ward’s Natural Science and its affiliates, Edmund Scientific, Science Kit and Boreal
Laboratories, provide science education materials for elementary
through college classrooms. Wards is a division of VWR
International.
 On
gross necropsy we discovered this bat, a female Mexican free-tail,
to be plump and healthy. She had a full stomach and intestines and was also
a nursing mother (click
here to see a picture of the necropsy results and proof of lactation).
 By all appearances this bat had been collected live and killed,
leaving behind a starving pup. This bat had a potential life span of
25 to 40 years in the wild and was capable of eating hundreds of
millions of insects during her lifetime. She was sold for $6.25.
We spoke to a Science Kit customer
service representative and were informed that these bats were indeed
captured live in the region of NM. (Unfortunately, the state of NM
has minimal laws protecting their wildlife, making the harvesting of
certain species common.) We subsequently contacted Jeff Douglass,
President of Ward's Natural Science. Mr. Douglass stated "... We are
not only in compliance with all regulations but we maintain the
utmost respect for living and preserved specimens". He then referred us
to Ward's Purchasing Supervisor, Bill Mistretta. Mr. Mistretta
shared several e-mails with Bat World Sanctuary, in which he stated
the following: |
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A mother free-tail
with her pup |
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"We as
scientists and educators need to give people the
[sic] opporutnity
to learn about the environment, without disturbing the
integrity of the wild populations. As you know, bats are
extremely difficult to view in the wild, and in order to
make them accessible to students, we do have to collect some
of them."
"Our supplier takes great care when obtaining these specimens
and he is only allowed to collect small amounts of this
species from the Southwestern portion of the US. Our vendor
must obtain a permit on a yearly basis and is allowed to
collect during the Summer months. Our supplier takes great
care in the euthanization process and follows all
regulations set by the AVMA."
"Ward's collection use is extremely small as compared to the
overall population of the Tadarida brasiliensis bat. We
generally only take a couple of hundred specimens per year."
In a separate
e-mail wherein we requested the euthanasia method used on
the bats and the state in which the bats were obtained, Mr.
Mistretta stated:
"Unfortunately, the state
we obtain the bats from and how they are
[sic] Euthanised is
proprietary information. Be assured that our collectors and
Ward's follow every step required to make sure we do not
hurt the bat populations. Like I stated in my earlier
e-mail, the bats are all euthanised using AVMA policies."
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The AVMA
(American Veterinary Medical Association) has no
set guidelines for euthanizing bats. Insectivorous bats have a
very high tolerance to Co2, the chemical most commonly used for
euthanizing small mammals. The use of this method to euthanize bats is
considered extremely inhumane. Additionally, the
very low asking price for the bat specimens that Ward's and their
affiliates offer in jars suggests they are paying a minimal
amount for them. It would hardly benefit a supplier to
collect and sell only a ‘few hundred’ as Wards claims. We
suspect there are far more animals involved than Ward's will admit.
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Please write a letter to the
the contacts below at Wards Natural Science and voice your dismay over their
apparent lack of
integrity regarding bats and other wildlife. A sample letter is
provided below. Please also forward this page to every educator,
conservationist and student you know.
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President: Jeff
Douglass -
Jeff_Douglass@VWR.COM
Ward's
Natural Science
5100 West Henrietta Road
West Henrietta, NY 14692
Tel: 585-321-9422
Fax: 585-321-0372 |
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| SAMPLE
LETTER - please feel free to copy and paste the
following letter into the body of an e-mail. (Click
here to view Bat World Sanctuary's letter to Wards Natural Science.) |
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Dear Ward's Natural Science,
Your name has been listed
on the Wall of Shame at www.batworld.org
because you are selling bats that have been collected healthy
and alive, then killed just so your company can make a profit. The fact you also condone the
harvesting of healthy mother bats causing the
intentional orphaning of helpless babies is morally
repugnant. This action is as ethically questionable as the importation
of living animals to be killed in canned hunts for a profit.
Despite your excuses, this level of cruelty cannot be
justified scientifically.
Bats
are in rapid decline across the US. As primary predators of vast
quantities of night-flying insects, including serious crop
pests, free-tailed bats are important to the agricultural
interests of our country. As a purportedly ethical society, it
is time we moved beyond the practice of sacrificing free-living
animals for ‘study.’ There are numerous specimens available at
fine museums
everywhere and deceased wildlife, which has died of natural
causes, can be easily obtained from wildlife rehabilitators. I am absolutely sure that every school
student in this great country would be outraged if they knew
these animals were being killed just so they could look at them
in a jar.
I
ask that
Ward’s Scientific and all its affiliates stop the sacrifice of
bats and other healthy wildlife on the grounds it is
unjustified, unsustainable, and morally wrong. Until then, I
will tell all my friends about Ward's Natural Science and its
affiliates and actively encourage the boycott of Wards Natural
Science products to teachers, students and the general public
across the US.
Signed, |
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