Dear Ward's Natural Science,

You are selling bats that have been collected healthy and alive, then killed just so your company can make a profit. You are also condoning the harvesting of healthy mother bats and causing the intentional orphaning of helpless babies, which is morally repugnant and 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.