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A seashell vendor sells seashells which have been taken alive from the water, killing the animal inside.

Poaching is illegal hunting or fishing. It may be illegal because:

• The game or fish is not in season, usually the breeding season is declared as the closed season when wildlife species are protected by law.
• The poacher does not possess a license.
• The poacher is illegally selling the animal or animal parts for a profit.
• The animal is being hunted outside of legal hours.
• The hunter used an illegal weapon for that animal.
• The animal or plant is on restricted land.
• The right to hunt this animal is claimed by somebody.
• The means used are illegal (for example, baiting a field while hunting quail, or using spotlights to stun or paralyze deer).
• The animal or fish is protected by law or that it has been listed as extinct animal or an Endangered Animal (see for example the Endangered Species Act for the USA)
• The animal or plant has been tagged by a researcher

It is currently estimated that the illegal wildlife trade is worth 10 billion US dollars.^{[citation needed]}

Note that only wild animals can be poached. Stealing or killing domestic animals is theft ("cattle rustling"), not poaching.

Plant poaching is also on the rise. A prominent example is the removal of Ginseng [1] growing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is estimated that dried wild ginseng plants are worth more that $500 per pound on the black market.

In the Middle Ages, poaching was a form of hunting unique to the poor, especially during the eras when hunting was a privilege reserved to landowners and the nobility. In the 16th century, killing a deer (a royal animal) was punishable by death.

The poor typically hunted small animals such as rabbits, using snares and ferrets. This was illegal even if the rabbits were destroying crops on their land^[1]. Hunting larger game required weapons, considerable skill, and spare time, which the average peasant simply did not have. A peasant was far more likely to kill the lord's deer to protect his fields. Still, killing the deer was considered poaching, no matter what the cause. Outlaws could support themselves by hunting, even though they could get into even more trouble doing so. In the medieval period, wild animals were considered a major source of food because of several famines that demolished other sources of food. This led to an increase in poaching.

In England poaching was fairly common right up to the late 20th century. There is evidence that poaching was a major source of food for the rural poor. Many traditional English folk songs deal with poaching, whether the act itself (as in the Lincolnshire Poacher) or the consequences of being caught (for example, Van Diemen's Land (song), Geordie (ballad)). Perhaps because of this, poaching has been viewed with a kind of nostalgic romanticism in some areas, seen as a noble act to defend the rights of the poor.

Slips of Authority

There have been many national and international actions taken against certain kinds of poaching and hunting. Hunting for Ivory was banned in 1989. The Philippines have more than 400 endangered animals, all of which are illegal to poach. Governments have taken many steps to stop poaching.

Some game wardens have made use of robotic decoy animals placed in high visibility areas to draw out poachers for arrest after the "animals" get shot.[2].

As of at least 1990 the verb is sometimes used to refer to the act of hiring employees who are already employed by another company (especially a competitor), orchestrated by a recruiter referred to as a "headhunter".

In 2007, the term began to be used to mean being harassed by family members. The term has been used in the scrap metal trade also.

• Black Act
• Lacey Act
• Endangered species
• WildAid
• Night Poaching Act 1828
• Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS)
• Hunting
• Fishing
• Hunting license
• Bag limits
• Game Warden
• Wildlife
• Wildlife Conservation
• Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries - Enforcement Division

1. ^ Culpin, C. (1997). Crime and Punishment Through Time. Collins Educational. ISBN 978-0003273212

• The Trade in Wild Animals: A Serious Problem
• Market size of the illegal trade in animals

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Poaching

• Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Poaching Paradise (Video)