Copy of Letter mailed to local store that sells antique ivory beads

09-04-15

Dear Owner of Friends Lapidary and Jewelry,

You seem like such a nice man. In fact I'm sure you are a nice man. You are helpful and knowledgeable and kind when I'm in your store.

However there's one thing that really bothers me about Friends, one thing and one thing only.

Your store sells ivory beads.

Please stop, I beg of you to please stop.

Perhaps you're not aware an elephant is poached every 15 minutes in Africa, that's an average of 96 elephants being killed daily for ivory.

Perhaps you don't know poachers shoot elephants with poisoned darts to avoid making noise with guns at times. This poison debilitates the animal but doesn't instantly kill it; elephants have the front half of their faces cut off while they're still alive.

Perhaps you don't know that poachers wait in hiding for the family members and friends of the elephants to return to the 'scene of the crime' to mourn their beloved... only to massacre the makeshift 'elephant funeral.'

Perhaps you don't know that baby elephants are being left motherless every day and die a slow death of hunger and heartache.

Perhaps you don't know that poached ivory funds extremist and terrorist groups in Africa and throughout the Middle East... this is extremely dirty money.

Perhaps you don't know that elephants are pregnant for nearly 2 years at a time so the reproduction cycle is very slow.

Perhaps you don't know that elephants with large tusks (referred to as the 'Tuskers' instinctively hide their tusks in bushes or behind trees when a helicopter flies over their heads)- they know they're targeted and killed for their tusks and, yes, poachers track elephants and rhino by helicopter- these are organized terrorist-funded-groups.

I could go on but I won't. It's not good for my blood pressure.

Sources: African Wildlife Foundation, The Tsavo Trust, International Anti-Poaching-Foundation, 96elephants.org, WWF (Traffic in particular), NRDC... I'm a member of all of these groups even though my meager earnings allow me to donate a very minimal amount annually.

I know your ivory sir is 'from the vault' but that doesn't matter. You carrying it still in some small way 'creates a demand,' and implicates that you're O.K. with the violent slaughter of a majestic, intelligent, sentient creature. And you seem like such a nice man, I just can't imagine that to be the case.

Thank You For Hearing My Concerns, Truly,

One of Your Customers