Tuesday 25 November 2014

The Box of Shame

This is the box of shame. It is sitting on my doorstep waiting to be collected and my heart feels heavy with the weight of it's contents.  The moment of collection will be cause for significant relief and rejoicing.


You see, this box contains a tiger skin. (Please read the rest of the post before you send me an abusive e-mail.)  I inherited it a few months ago and the awfulness of having such a thing has tracked me in my dreams and in my waking.  My Mother didn't know what to do with it when she had it; it sat in a canvas bag in the attic.  My Grandmother didn't know what to do with it either; it was in a store room in that same canvas bag.  My Great Grandfather shot it in Nepal in 1904.  I know that those were different times but I still cannot excuse him.  I have known of it's existence all my life and it has always made me incredibly sad.


Until now.  The reason the skin is sitting in a box on my front doorstep is because it is being transported to another part of the country where a shamanic practitioner who works with Tiger as an ally will keep it as a sacred object.  This person would never have wished for such a thing, they would never seek it out, but the synchronicities arranged by the spirits (or so it seemed) were so perfect that now this poor old skin - a skin that has waited solemnly in a bag for over a hundred years - will at least be honoured and respected.  Given that the tiger was shot and preserved this feels like the best outcome possible.

As I was taping and addressing the box of shame for it's departure, I was content in what I thought was the knowledge that this sort of thing doesn't happen any more.

Oh dear, how very wrong I was! There is a new petition from the International Fund for Animal Welfare - it reads like this: "I was shocked to learn about the scale of wildlife trade over the internet. The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s (IFAW’s) recent report entitled ‘Wanted – Dead or Alive’ alarmingly shows that their investigators found 33,006 endangered wildlife and wildlife parts and products [for sale on the internet]....  The investigation looked at 280 online marketplaces in 16 countries during a six week period in 2014 - so this is just the tip of the iceberg."

"This trade in wildlife ..... is taking place when the poaching of endangered wildlife is reaching unprecedented levels and the existence of the internet is providing an expanding platform that is seeing traditional crimes transforming in scale."

Specifically, the IFAW are asking the Government to make it a criminal offence to advertise an animal, or its parts (listed under either Appendix I or II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) if the advertiser does not include a valid CITES permit number within the advertisement.  They would also like it to be a requirement that online marketplaces have alerts on their sites regarding the possibility that advertisers might be breaking the law and links to details about the specifics of the law.

The petition is HERE please support it if you can.

The tiger skin is a perfect example of everything that is sickening about the trade in endangered animal parts, not least the fact that an animal was killed for the gratification of one individual's desires, nothing more.  His flesh was not eaten, his bones were not ground for medicines, his pelt was not used to keep anyone warm.  It's a thought that is coming to me more and more these days; not just "do I really need this?" but also "what will be done with it when I die?"  I truly hope that the Tiger has taught me a lesson learned well enough that there will be nothing to bring my descendants cause for shame when I do eventually join my Great Grandfather and that he will be pleased to see me, despite our differing views.











11 comments:

  1. It is a tragedy what humans do to animals. The spirit of this tiger is blessed to have been in the care of the women in your family - it was a long path but at least it has been hidden away in dark peace for most of the time before it goes to a home where it will be honoured in the best way.

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  2. Sarah has said it perfectly, it will reach its best destination. I've seen these rugs once or twice in the past when visiting stately homes and they make me shudder.
    By the way, the entrance to your home is beautiful!
    Jess x

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    1. Thanks! So happy it's gone to a person who has already done lots to honour it's spirit. I feel I can relinquish my sadness and my ancestral shame and get on with the business of honouring my ancestors for the wonderful gift of my life and making the best job of that I that I can. Hurrah for happy endings. :)

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  4. Here is a link to a poem which makes me cry every time. Gillian Clarke, Polar, about a polar bear skin rug. ... between the silence and the shot that rang over the ice...

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    1. Oh, what a poem. Made me cry too! I'm posting it here (as your link doesn't seem to work) for anyone else who finds there way here. Thank you so much for sharing it. <3

      POLAR

      Snowlight and sunlight, the lake glacial.
      Too bright to open my eyes
      in the dazzle and doze
      of a distant January afternoon.

      It’s long ago and the house naps in the plush silence
      of a house asleep, like absence,
      I’m dreaming on the white bear’s shoulder,
      paddling the slow hours, my fingers in his fur.

      His eyes are glass, each hair a needle of light.
      He’s pegged by his claws to the floor like a shirt on the line.
      He is a soul. He is what death is. He is transparency.
      a loosening floe on the sea.

      But I want him alive.
      I want him fierce
      with belly and breath and growl and beating heart,
      I want him dangerous,

      I want to follow him over the snows
      between the immaculate earth and now,
      between the silence and the shot that rang
      over the ice at the top of the globe,

      when the map of the earth was something we knew by heart,
      and they had not shot the bear,
      had not loosed the ice,
      had not, had not....

      GILLIAN CLARKE

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  5. Ah, my dear. You have done the best anyone could ask for from such a thing. I feel the same about my grandmother's seashell collection, a source of fascination for me as a child. A source of sadness as an adult. It was such a different time.

    The good news is that there are more and more people joining those who find this awful.

    You have done well by the tiger. It is good that it will go somewhere appropriate.

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  6. Ah, my dear. You have done the best anyone could ask for from such a thing. I feel the same about my grandmother's seashell collection, a source of fascination for me as a child. A source of sadness as an adult. It was such a different time.

    The good news is that there are more and more people joining those who find this awful.

    You have done well by that animal. It is good that it will go somewhere appropriate.

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  7. We,re all made of the same stuff. We all make mistakes, as long as we (&others)learn from them, its OK. Your tiger has had a good bloodline of women to care for him/his soul,many are not cared for or honoured,and he still is. Well done, let him go with love & dream freely. X

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  8. Thanks folks, it does feel as though the Spirit of Ancestral Guilt has moved on. Hurrah!

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