It's Driving Them Batty: Taxidermy for Sale Online

The Animals say that our history of hanging the heads of our enemies at the gates of our homes is at least more transparent than the current "sustainably sourced" bodies of Bat for sale online. No human needs the body of Bat or the head of any other species to hang on their wall, period. If you want to get in touch with who you perceive to be "dangerous", look no further than your garbage can where you're more likely to get rabies from Raccoon than Bat.

https://taxidermyco.uk/how-is-taxidermy-done/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/11/07/brief-history-displaying-opponents-severed-heads/

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=taxidermy+bat&crid=59CDT535R83P&sprefix=taxid%2Caps%2C130&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_6_5

https://iucn.org/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/25/climate/taxidermy-bats-kerivoula-picta.html

Transcript

I'm Lizanne Flynn. I'm a master healer who holds space for any Earthling as they reunite body and soul. I am a bridge for relationships between all species so that the heart bond becomes stronger, deeper, and more loving. I serve in the roles of animal communicator, medium, and medical intuitive, and I use the tools of shamanic journeying and soul retrieval to support all Earthlings in their recovery from past trauma. I'm certified as a canine massage therapist and Reiki Master Teacher. This is the Animals' iView podcast.

I have to say I've never been a fan of heads being mounted on a wall unless they happen to be the heads of my enemies and those would likely be outside of my castle's gates and on the other side of the moat. You know, to deter any others who might be foolish enough to transgress against me. That sounds ghoulish of course and it is absolutely true that as some 8000 years of human history shows, our species did use the heads of enemies to claim victory and also on occasion, may have kept the skull/head of a family member as a "portrait of Mom" that they wanted to hang onto. Quoting from the article in the podcast notes "Heads act “as a shorthand for the whole being,” said Ian Armit, an archaeologist at the University of Leicester who, as an expert in Bronze and Iron Age violence, has studied prehistoric headhunting in Europe. No other body part represents a person like the head. It is the center of vision, language, and thought. Vastly different human cultures recognize its symbolic power: “The head is important in societies that have absolutely no connection with each other, geographically or chronologically,” Armit said. And while occasionally humans taxidermy the whole bodies of other species like Fish and prey that are smaller than we are, it is with larger prey and other predators that we are more likely to keep as a trophy the heads of Animals that we take from Earth. And really, the heads of the enemies aside, I tend to have a visceral reaction to the heads and/or bodies of other species used as decoration more or less in homes, particularly, and even in hotels, hunting lodges per se, etc. I know that there are glass eyes involved and I'll be quoting from a link about how the body or carcass of the Animal is prepared so you've been forewarned, it's just that I don't see the point. I'm hearing from Rattlesnake for whatever reason - "It's such a pissing contest between human Animal and all other Animals when it's well known many of us could kill you within a very short period using a variety of methods specific to our bodies. We don't use guns or arrows or knives or spears to defend ourselves. We also don't bait our prey as you might (referring to Bear and putting corn or apples on the ground while lying in wait in Tree). We use skill and our prey are used for sustenance and to ensure the health and survival of the prey we maintain. (Wolf is howling I mean chiming in now as well). We don't take the genetically strongest of the prey (referring to Stag or Ram) because we want them to remain healthy so that they remain healthy for us. And we don't take more than our families can eat." And with that, as the saying goes, "Thank you for coming to our TED talk."

They've got a point you know, and if there are any hunters in the listening audience, don't come for me, okay? Because I've got the receipts on the accurate story of conservation vs preservation and how the IUCN, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, sets annual goals and freely admits that the goals have absolutely no hope of being attained because our species is just spectacularly bad (my words) at conserving ourselves to begin with (population control in response to available resources on Earth) that we have absolutely no business at attempting to conserve other species. My recent foray into these types of discussions began with the US Fish and Wildlife posting on FB in the past month about how hunting is a vital part of the economy and with fall coming up, they were hyping up hunting. And as I've said before with most social media, "no good comes from posting online (with strangers)" I still went ahead and commented: "Wildlife management is an oxymoron" that wasn't my saying at all, it was shared with me by - get this - a wildlife biologist! Naturally, there were ruffled feathers all around and as I said, I have the receipts to back me up. USFW is an "economic powerhouse" because it raked in $394 billion in 2022 the most ever recorded in any National Survey that they do annually. It's broken down like this: 148 million U.S. residents watched wildlife in 2022 while 40 million went fishing and 14.4 million hunted. This means that roughly 57% of Americans 16 years of age or older participated in wildlife watching, 15% fished and 6% hunted last year. These trips equaled a combined total of 14 billion days spent in the field, on the water, and around the home viewing wildlife, an all-time high. I know I echo the Animals in saying it's great to get outdoors, it's your planet as well, and still, rather than hunt for food alone as in days of yore, we hunt for trophies and we hunt for sport. That's an imbalanced Energy that's out of sync with the design of this planet so no wonder we can't seem to hold our heads let alone any other species' heads above water as far as conservation goes, because we're sinking and we're taking them with us. In the comments on the post, there was the naturally occurring chest pounding by mostly men and that "whataboutism" strewn far and wide that's similar to, I'm hearing, "Monkey poo" - you know I can't make this up, y'all. And even a few from USFW saying "Don't knock hunting" and I don't. I know and the Animals know that for their species to stay healthy, they understand that some of their numbers will be transitioning via the predator called human. And other predators as well, it's not just us. It's the whole wheel of their life experience that they accept and it's just this head-on-the-wall thingy they can't quite get over.

The reason why I used the word batty in the podcast title was because of the recent article in the New York Times (and my apologies about the paywall, just sign up for a free account and say no to subscribing) about the increased numbers of taxidermied Bats appearing on Etsy and eBay. And y'all, it doesn't stop there; our most hated/beloved online shopping venue depending on your viewpoint, of course, Amazon, had 137 taxidermied Bats for sale when I checked earlier this week. On Etsy, it was hard to get a clear number that I tried to narrow down via the use of filters, although the number remained quite high and I would guesstimate it to be over 500 and on eBay, it was much less, only 29 although again, what I saw weren't all Bat carcasses per se; several of the items were shrunken heads - allegedly - and other Animal body parts like skulls and shells of Turtle. Still - I'm hearing quite loudly in my head - "Nobody needs a Bat body except a Bat!" Quoting from the article there is a difference seen between a sustainably sourced Bat and those whose bodies are part of the illegal animal trade and black market for such things. As far back as 2014, so 10 years ago, researchers noticed a worrying increase in the number of Bat bodies for sale on eBay. However, it wasn't until 2022, and for only two months, that they regularly searched online listings on eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. They were focused on a specific species of Bat known as the painted wooly Bat because of its distinctive orange fur and striped wings. They started their study originally because in 2020, this species had been declared near threatened and its population had declined up to 25% over the past 15 years. The numbers of Bat for Sale were likely about what I found - 856 - with Etsy and eBay each having about 45% and Amazon 5%. Most of the sellers indicated that they were in the US and that the specimens had been imported from Indonesia. Many claimed that - of course - their Bats were sustainably sourced - whatever that means - or had come from being bred in captivity. And doncha know, that harvesting Bats helps to "prevent extinction and support the fight against deforestation and habitat destruction worldwide." Sound familiar and akin to wildlife management being an oxymoron, with emphasis on the moron part. Naturally, after the Times article came out it became a whack-a-mole game at least on eBay where the offending accounts were taken down only to reappear in some different shape and format a few days later. Amazon gasped, clutched at their pearls, and said, "No! Not us!" I beg to differ and included the link on Amazon where you can see Bat sold for "educational purposes" although again, nobody needs a Bat body except a Bat. Quoting from the article - "For now, the findings highlight the fact that “just about any animal that can be traded will be traded, if money can be made. As with many other types of wildlife commerce, there is “no evidence and no data to suggest it is sustainable or ethical.” Bat populations around the world already face myriad threats from climate change, habitat loss, persecution, wildlife disease, collisions with wind turbines, and more, said Liam McGuire, an ecologist at the University of Waterloo in Ontario who was not involved in the research. “To see bat populations further threatened purely for decorative and aesthetic purposes is very concerning.”

Honestly, for a group of species that's responsible for pollinating over 1/3 of the food humans eat, I think we should be more mindful of our relationship with Bat and this doesn't take into account the number of insects they ingest for us although not all Bats are insectivores. And don't get me started on the myth of the rabid Bat because only 1/2 of 1% of Bats carry the rabies virus and often they get it from other Animals - it's not like they have a lab somewhere cooking up the rabies virus and spreading it willy nilly across the land. Wild animals account for >90% of reported cases, with bats (33%), raccoons (30%), skunks (20%), and foxes (7%) most often exposing Americans to rabies. Remember, the same was said about the coronavirus and the bad rap that Bat got for being a carrier of the disease without being affected by it. All mammals can contract and carry rabies, however, bats are not asymptomatic carriers of the disease. In reality, bats contract rabies far less than other animals and just the other day I saw an article about a rabid Bat - one - that was found in a Colorado county. Even if rabies is spread among Bat and other wild Animals, it is at such a slow rate that it makes little impact on their overall numbers and certainly far less than illegally using their bodies however dispatched in the facilitation of our ghoulish and macabre needs. When compared with their benefits to how our collective ecosystem functions, their contributions far outweigh any fears we may have about them. And as if to turn the tables a bit, I'm seeing an absolutely adorable stuffed Bat that's been somehow animated to get their point across holding a sword that, from a distance, looks pretty sharp and pointy. In a small squeaky voice, they're saying, "Off with YOUR heads!" I dunno about you, but I'd rather stay on Bat's good side - and at least, that's how the Animals see it.

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