In general, poaching is defined as the illegal hunting, killing or capture of animals in the wild. The term poaching comes into play in these situations as they are termed illegal:
When the hunter does not have a license, the animal is hunted outside legal hours or not during hunting season or by a banned hunting weapon.
Technicalities sometimes arise as to the determination of intent for the harm exacted on an animal, yet the most potent factor (for the decline in populous of any specie of animal) after us; the people inhabiting their environment are poachers.
Poachers are to be treated as criminals. Their actions can be motivated by many reasons, chiefly monetary gain, these are considered the most dangerous considering the sheer volume of animals they kill/capture. There is a world of illegal and inhumane credence that has found poaching for the fur, tusk, leather, bone, horns and other distinguishing body part of a specific creature. The largest black market is that of fur, in China the highest numbers of poaching crimes are committed, where almost all species of animals in the neighboring woods are captured, transported in cages, unloaded, their bones shattered and then killed before being skinned after a soak in boiling combination of water and acid.
Yet not all poachers are driven by greed, some have an inclination towards torture and exhibition, while some of them are only following family traditions in keeping with taxidermy practices.
In rural Africa and other jungle tribes, animals are poached just to earn a livelihood, the poor have no other means of survival, which in turn reduces their guilt and increase their propensity for killing. Some do so to keep their lands ‘clean’, others to protect their way of life amongst the wildlife. Although in practice this may seem wrong but the element of survival takes precedence here.
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