John,
It’s Halloween. All around we see spooky representations of witches, pumpkins, cats, bats, and more.
But some Halloween decorations are real painted woolly bats collected from the wild — killed, stuffed, and hung on walls thousands of miles from their homes.
The United States is the largest known market for trade in these unique orange-and-black bats, who are native to South and Southeast Asia. Their populations are declining, and their biggest threat is overcollection for decor. In recent years the United States has imported many hundreds of painted bats directly from their wild habitat.
A study over 12 weeks found 215 listings for painted woolly bats on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy alone. That's not OK.
And the problem isn't new — researchers have been raising conservation concerns about the hunting and sale of taxidermy bats as decor for almost a decade. Painted bats are especially vulnerable to collection because they only have one baby bat at a time, so they'll have trouble bouncing back once populations are even more depleted.
Beyond being breathtakingly beautiful, these bats play an important role within their ecosystem and for people, consuming insects around fields and providing natural pest control wherever they go. With the extinction crisis worsening every day, the world can't afford to lose this or any other irreplaceable species.
In response to rising public concern over the sale of these bats, major retailers Etsy and eBay have barred the sale of bats.
These special animals aren't knickknacks. They're much more magnificent alive and thriving for generations to come.
Tell Amazon to join Etsy and eBay and stop selling painted woolly bats so their populations can again flourish in the wild — where they belong.
