A WWII veteran died of Covid and donated his body “to science.” Because “to science” is a pretty unregulated term, he ended up in the hands of an oddities company, which offered a live autopsy ticketed event. The tickets to watch were $250-$500. They left the toe tag on, and a reporter from King5 News use that to identify and find the wife of the deceased. She had absolutely no idea his body would be used like this and neither she nor her husband had consented. 

Consent has always been an issue with human remains. There is almost no situation in which someone has formally consented to being an oddity. Plenty of people WOULD be ok with being dissected publicly or being sold as a decoration (especially if their family got some of that sweet cash) but there is no option to formally have that choice when you die. It’s just “donate to someone who doesn’t really tell you what they’re going to do with it, burn or bury.” So human remains buyers use the people who have been “donated to science.” They’re very happy for the “ethical standard” to anonymize human remains “for your protection and privacy” because it usually means no one can cross-reference what happens to a body with what they had agreed to when they were alive. 

No one would have known if it weren’t for the toe tag. 

I had an interesting discussion about this article in an oddities group, in which many of these bats are sold, the other day.

Again there were several people saying basically “I didn’t realize that the mummified bat trade was actively funding bat slaughters, so I won’t buy or sell any (more.) I only want to be involved in sustainable vulture culture, utilizing waste, not killing animals only for their preserved remains.”

Only one person defended the practice, saying that the people who kill and sell the bats are poor.

I was surprised, though, to see a lot of people saying that they didn’t care that they were buying or selling animals that were killed specifically for decor, and didn’t even want people to talk about it.

“Don’t like it, don’t buy it.”

“Who cares? People kill chickens all the time.”

“That’s nice sweetie…I have a business to run.”

I am just a little bit surprised that there are so many people in vulture culture and oddities who don’t really believe in considering the ethical and environmental impact of their trade, or even about transparently telling their clients where the animals came from. Not all are like that of course, not even all bat sellers. But for those of you who don’t want to support killing animals….it’s complicated.

I’ll be here! (General admission is $3.) If you’re a weirdo in New York, lmk and I’ll see you there!