Ever wonder how poachers make a living? Fielding questions from patrons at the Canadian National Exhibition answered that quite clearly for me.
Without exaggeration, we were seriously asked somewhere around 100 times for tiger claws, rhino horns and elephant tusks. Almost the entirety (if not the entirety) of requests were from Asian and Southeast Asian individuals, including a uniformed police officer! Every time we asked why, we’d be greeted with sheepish smiles and replies such as “luck” or “energy”.
For the first half of the show I’d try to rationally explain why these shouldn’t be purchased based on the principles of conservation. Every time their eyes would glaze over and they’d either walk away mid-explanation or wait for me to shut up before saying “so, how much money would it take to get one?”
Needless to say, I got fed up and it was time for a NEW STRATEGY!
Whenever people asked for one, I’d get all wide-eyed and exclaim, “OH NO!! BAD ENERGY!! You don’t want to bring that danger into your life and around your family!!”
Every time it caught the person completely by surprise and they’d beg for more information.
“They used to be considered lucky but the energy has now shifted! Too much **insert endangered animal** blood has been spilled into the Earth and it has angered the spirit world! THEY ARE NOW CURSED!”
When they asked what brings good luck, I told them Inuit and First Nation products when collected with permits.
“If you want your claws and tusks to have balance and good energy, you must only buy from those who live in harmony and balance with nature”.
You’d be damn surprised how often that worked. I hate providing unscientific information but sometimes you have to fight superstitious bullsh*t with superstitious bullsh*t!
“You gots to tell people a story they’re willing to understand.” —Granny Weatherwax, Witch (paraphrased because I can’t remember the exact wording).
This. If someone actually believes in magic, telling them the magic isn’t real isn’t going to work. They know it’s real, you saying it’s not real just means you’re confused or trying to keep them from it for some reason.
But if you tell them the magic is different than what they think, if you give them a logical framework from which to shift their understanding of how the magic works, that can change their minds.
Associating poached items with bad energy (they’re stolen, they’re cursed) might actually work. Hell, have someone who follows the beliefs actually put a cursed on the damned things. Then you’re not even lying.
(hell, if you could get the doctors to go along with it, I think they should have an alternate strategy to market vaccines as homeopathic cures for things. It might get some of the antivaxers to stop screeching.)
