Sustainable Sourcing Statement
Black Moth is anything but your average retail store, built on the foundation of educating and learning about the natural world and its history. We strive to offer Tulsa the opportunity to observe, buy, and collect all kinds of natural specimens. This includes (but is not limited to) fossils, cultural artifacts, insects, animal and human remains. When buying and selling such products, Black Moth is committed to upholding sustainable sourcing policies since its creation in 2014.
How do we implement sustainable sourcing policies?
We strive to be consistent with researching endangered species, and state laws as well as buying vintage, stillborn, passed naturally, or otherwise recycled animal products and specimens. We also utilize and support the practice of no waste, selling pelts, horns, and other byproducts of food farming, population control, and animal conservation.
We carry both animal and human specimens and uphold equal respect and appreciation for everything that passes through our store. All of our human bones are retired medical and educational specimens, purchased and sold legally. These human specimens have donated their bodies to science and are more often anonymous, meaning we can only guess a specimen's history from their bones or if documentation is included.
We recognize that we have a unique collection subject to differing perspectives. Our goal at Black Moth is to educate and share our love and appreciation for the natural world with anyone that wants to learn. We like to say “nothing died to be here, it was dead when we met.”
What does sustainable sourcing look like?
Sustainable sourcing takes environmental and biological factors into consideration. This can look like regulated population control, as a way to fight invasive species or to prevent the spread of diseases within a population. For example, species like the burmese python are invasive and cause serious harm to the Florida everglades, depriving other animals of food and in some cases preying on endangered or threatened species. We also source byproducts of the food industry, trying to use every part of the animal and give it a second life rather than let it be thrown out. Here is a breakdown of where we get our products from!
Taxidermy: All of our taxidermy pieces are bought second-hand, sourced from vintage or personal collections. Most of our mounts are vintage pieces, often from trophy hunting. While we don’t endorse trophy hunting, we want to continue to show respect to these pieces even after death.
Skulls: Many of our skulls are from collections, by products of the food or hunting industry. We also source from local farms, taking and cleaning bones from animals that passed on the farms.
Insects: Our insects are purchased secondhand from a seller who sources already passed butterflies and moths from aviaries around the world. These aviaries are to protect females and their eggs from disease and predators, and some are released back into the wild after hatching to help increase indigenous populations. The others live the rest of their lives (typically a week or so) in the aviary.
Wet Specimens: We often have small specimens that are stillborn that we turn into wet specimens. Others are invasive species that passed due to population control, or by products of the food industry such as our cow eyes.
Sea Life: The majority of our shells and animal products are by-products of the seafood and farming industry. The shells and animals are harvested for their meat.
Tails & Pelts: Most of our tails and pelts do come from the trapping industry. The fur trapping industry is heavily regulated, wildlife agencies use data work alongside fur trappers to set trapping quotas to help control overpopulation and manage populations of predators or competitors.
Have more questions? Feel free to give us a call! 918.779.7040