Poaching: Not Just a Way To Cook Stuff

Poaching: Not Just a Way to Cook Stuff
By: Jacob Spalding

How many of you would do something illegal for money at the expense of someone or something else? Hopefully none of you would do something like this but alas, there are people that do things like this all the time. One of these actions is poaching. Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. There are plant and animal poaching but for this particular post, I’m going to focus on animal poaching.


The main motive for animal poaching is commercial gain and/or trophies. For instance, a rhino horn can cost around $60,000 per kilogram and elephant ivory can cost around $2,142 per kilogram. Clearly this is tons of money in poaching and it makes since that people would try to gain monetarily from this illegal trade. $70-213 billion dollars a year are gained from this illegal wildlife trade. Rhinos and elephants horns and tusks are cut off and the animal is left for dead as the animal’s life is cared for at all. Criminal organizations and rebel militias profit from such actions more often than not. In poorer countries, people take part in illegal poaching because they need employment. Poached animals are good for bushmeat (meat consumed from non-domesticated species of animals) which goes for high prices in urban areas. These poorer areas take advantage of the high prices of bushmeat and poach in order to live. People also poach so their living room walls can be filled with the trophies of the animals they have killed. It’s bragging rights and it’s a way to have a good hunting story.


Law enforcement and non-governmental organizations around the world are constantly planning and conducting operations to catch environmental criminal groups and fugitives involved in environmental crimes. These crimes may occur at local, regional, or national levels and include the illegal trade in live animals and many more. Poaching can hurt an area’s biodiversity, affect the areas food chain and food web, and the economy of the nation. Tigers, for instance, are top predators and if completely taken away due to poaching, many animal populations run wild without the apex predator to keep them in check.

Although this problem looks unsolvable, there are more opportunities to get involved are available to individuals of all skill levels from anywhere in the world. Governments and private organizations are racing to save the world's wildlife but it takes everyone to save the animals of the world. Will our generation sit by as innocent animals are slaughtered for money or will we make a change protect the beautiful wildlife of this earth?

What do you think governments could do to stop poaching other than raise money?
What could the average person do to make a difference?
Is there anyway poaching can be stopped for good?
Can stopping poaching save ecosystems?






Comments

Anonymous said…
Poaching is one of the worst ways a species can become endangered or even extinct, but sadly, it is also one of the most common. This activity is not only illegal in many countries, but harmful to the environment. In addition, poaching brings about absolutely nothing beneficial to anyone, other than earning money. Although governments have made this activity illegal, it still occurs because of the money in the business. To combat this, we should try to increase the severity of the punishments for this crime. Anyone caught with poached animals or connected to poaching should be charged with the crime as well. I’ve heard of the black rhino, a dangerously endangered animal, whose tusks and horns are very valuable, so despite their critical population level, are still poached. There’s only around 5000 of them left, so now the laws surrounding black rhino poaching are getting more strict. This should be the case for all poached animals.
April 15, 2019 at 3:48 PM
Anonymous said…
I think a great thing that the government could do would be to increase enforcement on poaching laws. This way, people would become more afraid to kill animals, and would stop poaching. Another thing would be to incentivize the public. Maybe offering rewards to people who can point out other poachers could stop poaching. The best way to decrease poaching would be to create harsher sentences for poaching. However, this may cause more unintended problems like falsely turning in people. The average person could probably send money to organizations that try to stop poaching in developing nations. Poaching can definitely be stopped for good, but harsher restrictions and enforcement is needed in order to fully stop poachers. Stopping poaching can help restore ecosystems. When a certain species starts to disappear in an ecosystem, the whole ecosystem becomes effected. Letting species regrow helps restore ecosystems to a new equilibrium.
April 15, 2019 at 7:20 PM
Anonymous said…
The issue of poaching really is a travesty due to the fact that its a high rewarding activity but essentially kills our biodiversity on the Earth as to the fact that its common practice to hunt animals for that high reward. Laws and other enforcement on catching these poachers is definelty an amazing thing. Such as there’s this certain rhino that’s the last of its kind and has a guard unit with it for 24 hours while being monitored just because its horns are the most valuable horn in the world almost quadruple any other horn. That’s so sad to hear because a poor animal who wont ever be able to see its kind is being with guys all around the clock ready to incapacitate any poachers. It’s creating more of a human connection than one with its kind. So for that reason, I propose that we blacklist any poacher immediately and give them a long sentence without a chance at a rebuttal to overturn. As well as do a practice that some reservations are using which they will dye the tusks or horns of elephants, rhinos, etc to make the animals value drop to where its into even worth something to poach.
April 16, 2019 at 10:46 AM
Anonymous said…
This is so sad. Poachers kill and harm animals just to make money, especially endangered ones. I’ve seen many pictures and videos showing a baby with its dead mom who was a victim of poaching. I think that if people want to do illegal things, they should leave innocent animals out of it. Rhinos are going extinct, and a large part of that is due to poaching. Although it is near impossible to stop these mean poachers, adding more security to wildlife sanctuaries and making punishment more harsh for poachers could reduce the level of poaching. :(
April 17, 2019 at 8:10 AM
Anonymous said…
I always hate seeing things about poaching, because its a devastating thing for our wildlife and ecological diversity as a planet. There’s no way to stop poaching for good illegally, but there are programs that pay poachers to kill animals that are more threatening to their own population than another poacher would be. There’s not much we can do but enforce these laws more and keep an eye out for them.
April 17, 2019 at 11:05 AM
Anonymous said…
The amount of endangered species have drastically increased over the years. For poachers to risk putting an entire species at risk for their own personal greeed is unacceptable. The reality, however, is that poaching takes place in many developing countries. The presence of governments is certain countries as these are scarce. The likely hood of the governments focusing their energies in this epidemic is slim, especially since there are more impending issues that are directly impacting the people. This leaves it up to the more developed countries to send monitors to places where there aren’t any. Organizations or volunteer groups can go and protect these species or create safe havens for them. Poaching will never be completely eradicated, but in order to save these animals the developed countries need to bear the responsibility and put out more effort.
April 17, 2019 at 8:41 PM
Anonymous said…
Poaching can be devastating to ecosystems, and can even destroy ecosystems. If a keystone species is poached to extinction an ecosystem can quickly fall apart. For example, Rhinos are considered keystone species in many grassland ecosystems. However, as the Rhino population decreases, due to factors such as poaching, scientists discovered that other organisms in the ecosystem are also harmed. I think severe fines for poaching should be implemented. This would decrease the financial value of poaching, if caught. However, discovering the poachers would be the hard part, and I'm not 100% sure on what would be the best method to do this without invading peoples privacy.
April 17, 2019 at 9:42 PM
Anonymous said…
It’s devastating to see such atrocities committed against defenseless animals; they really have no chance against armed poachers and it hurts to see them go down to people only in it for the money. What we can do immediately and locally to stop poaching is to heavily oppose it and be vocal about it. Also, I believe that our generation is, so far, heading down the right path to stopping poaching. We are becoming a generation more aware and conscious of the current events around us and as a result are more willing to fight for and vocalize what we believe in. Thus, i do believe poaching is a solvable problem, one that can maybe be mostly solved by our generation.
April 18, 2019 at 11:55 AM
Anonymous said…
Poaching is something that has been going on in this world for years. However, in my opinion, I think this problem is something that we could fix easily. There are so many things that are prohibited due to the creation of a single law. I know even if a new law is enforced to prohibit any poaching, there will still be people illegally hunting animals, but I believe that if we enforce a specific law, it would significantly lower the volume of animals getting killed by the poachers. The government should be responsible for creating a new law and prohibiting any activities that would negatively impact the environment.
April 20, 2019 at 8:33 PM
Anonymous said…
Protecting the world wildlife and the global environment is essential, and to avoid the extinction of some species we must act now.
poaching is one of the leading causes for the extinction of animals. Enforcing heavy laws with huge punishments may be a way to reduce poaching and also educating kids about the topic will hopefully decrease the number of poachers in the future. I think it devastating see this kind of violence and greed from humans.
April 21, 2019 at 12:19 PM
Anonymous said…
Poaching is something that I believe definetely has the potential to be stopped. First of all, we would have to find a way in which poaching animals is not seen as a victory but a grave crime by other, and by changing people's views more people would want to not poach when it comes to bragging rights. If we have enough money to provide for the developing countries then we should reward them for not poaching which will provide as an initiative to stop poaching. Stopping poaching will definetely benefit those endangered animals and the ecosystems for not losing one of their valuable treasures. If government regulates more and enforces stricter law with no leniency on punishment then fear could be a factor which may be able to reduce poaching as well.
April 21, 2019 at 11:30 PM
Anonymous said…
Poaching most definitely can have detrimental effects on an ecosystem as the killing off of these animals causes imbalance. Food webs can be disrupted which creates a butterfly effect of problems. Poaching must be stopped, but how? It seems no matter how much awareness is brought to the issue and how many reserves are created, poachers continue to break these laws for money. I think reserves should be better secured and monitored to ensure that there are no unwanted visitors. The consequences of getting caught poaching also need to be worse if they are to scare people out of even trying it. Poachers are willing to risk a lot since they would gain so much money through success, but if the risk isn’t worth the prize then I think we would see a reduction in poaching.
April 22, 2019 at 9:15 AM
Anonymous said…
Governments need to spend more money on poaching prevention. This money can be utilized in many ways. For example, walls or barriers can be built that makes it difficult for humans to trespass. Security can be hired around critical habitats that are targeted by poachers. The government also needs to make the consequences more severe for violators. This can include longer prison sentences and larger fines. Individuals in locations where poaching is a problem can also make a difference. They can form groups and organizations that aim to prevent poaching and advocate for the protection of vulnerable animals. Poaching is a heartbreaking issue, but it is one that can be fixed if we all come together to put an end to the detrimental practice.
April 22, 2019 at 2:29 PM
Amogh Gokhale said…
I think that government intervention is a great idea to stop poaching. I recall a recent idea, that involves painting rhino horns in a slightly toxic, bright pink coloring. This does not harm the animal at all, and also completely destroys the value the horns have to poachers, as they can no longer sell them, and are also easily visible by government officials. I think if we put an end to this practice, many ecosystems could be saved, and species saved from extinction.
April 22, 2019 at 3:17 PM
Anonymous said…
Seeing things about poaching is always especially saddening because it’s hard to see and realize that innocent animals are being killed just for some individual’s personal commercial gain. I think strictly enforcing poaching laws is a good way that the government can try and reduce the epidemic at hand. Things as simple as awareness are not enough at this point because species have been driven to the point of endangerment due to this problem. Governments of the countries in which poaching is a bad issue need to prioritize solving this problem because poaching can definitely ruin food webs which then ruin ecosystems.
April 22, 2019 at 4:47 PM
Anonymous said…
Poaching is something that is not only cruel and extremely unnecessary, but also impacts ecosystems and livelihood for animals. It is sad that there is a big market for poaching, examples being things such as furs, busts, etc. These amazing animals that inhabit our earth tend to become endangered when in contact with poachers. To stop poaching, government intervention would be a huge step in the right direction. The government should spend more money to help combat against poaching, or establish strict regulations against hunters. If poachers receive an expensive fine when they are caught, levels could drop off. If humans stop poaching, not only will a cruel practice be gone, but certain animals will no longer be endangered, and ecosystems will definitely benefit from the loss of poaching.
April 22, 2019 at 8:58 PM
Anonymous said…
The problem I see is that there aren't any real benefits to poaching, unlike burning fossil fuels or filling up landfills. Rhinos are mostly hunted for their horns for use as Traditional Chinese medicine, which isn't even effective. Tiger parts are also sold in Asian countries as ineffective medicine. Elephant ivory is functionally replacable with plastic. The real problem is that people who buy poached goods believe them to be good. Supposedly, the solution is to educate everyone that dead animals of endangered species aren't cool, but that'll take too long. Another theory I've heard about is removing the horns and tusks of rhinos and elephants, as then there's no incentive to kill them, but it's a pretty bad idea.
April 22, 2019 at 11:02 PM
Anonymous said…
It is sad that so many animals are poached and it is devastating that this causes extinction. I think we need more government intervention so that we can enforce laws to stop poaching, I think other initiatives, such as fines and other major regulations will scare poachers away. The only way to get any change on this issue is with government regulations because just educating the public has not been enough. The public know about this issue, but there has not been enough laws to stop poaching around the world.
April 23, 2019 at 2:14 PM
Anonymous said…
Other than raising money the government can raise awareness of punishments due to poaching. For example, West Virginia imposes stiff jail terms for poaching offenses. A third offense gets you a felony conviction, with up to a $10,000 fine, one to five years in prison and a lifetime hunting license revocation. The only way for us to make a change, is to just stop buying items containing of ivory so that the sellers will stop selling. And if business stop selling then I believe poaching could be stopped for good. If we stop poaching, it will impact the environment in a beneficial way; mainly the wildlife population will be saved from extinction.
April 23, 2019 at 4:50 PM
Anonymous said…
Poaching is a very serious issue that harms entire species of wildlife. Not only this, but it is also a very hard crime to stop. Many countries where poaching is very common and dangerous to wildlife simply do not have the resources to eradicate it completely. This situation is dire, but it is also very hard to find a solution. I think that in the end, as with most environmental situations, it comes down to education. Not only educating the governments of countries that face poaching problems, but also to the poachers themselves. Many poachers in African countries do so as means of income. Maybe, just maybe, if they were to be educated about other job opportunities and the harms that come with poaching, the problem could be stopped. However, its very hard to stop a business like poaching when it is run on the black market.
April 23, 2019 at 4:59 PM
Anonymous said…
Everyone must know that poaching doesn’t do any good to the wildlife. It only brings humans money and joy because of money from it. Poaching is made to be illegal in almost everywhere around the world but people still do it of course for the money. I believe it is almost impossible to put a complete stop to poaching, for now. However, we, as normal human beings, can make this problem aware and show people how much of a damage it does not only on the animal but to us in the long run. By stopping poaching, we can definitely save the ecosystems.
April 23, 2019 at 5:50 PM
Anonymous said…
Killing for sport has always been something that I did not understand. If you need food and need to kill an am I already for it, go for it. But why kill rare animals just for fun? Ruining ecosystems doesn’t sound very fun to me. Poaching definitely can ruin ecosystems. Just a “trophy” of an animal is not worth killing these animals. find a new hobby or a new job. The government has tried to take steps to prevent it but obviously it is not working, considering people still do it. The government found make the punishments for doing it either en extremely high fine or even time in prison. if it was outlawed and you still do it, you are breaking the law and the government has every right to imprison you for it. To catch these people, i think eyes should be turned towards the black market.
April 23, 2019 at 6:11 PM
Anonymous said…
There's a lot I don't know about hunting, as I never really got into it, but one thing I did think about was how I didn't like the fact that people would kill rare and endangered animals for no reason. When people choose to hunt for sport, they disrupt the natural food chain of the ecosystem by removing that species. While we can try and prevent this from happening, I don't see that changing anything as some people are so dedicated to hunting for sport and would do it at any price they have to pay. One thing we could do is enforce more punishments on people that choose to do so, making them regret their choices.
April 23, 2019 at 7:54 PM
Anonymous said…
Poaching has been something that I hate a burning hate for ever since I watched documentaries on African wildlife when I was little. While I certainly think that money helps, I don’t think that it is the best way to tackle this issue. Personally, I think that increased security at these parks is the way to battle this issue. By surrounding the park night and way with watchers, we can try and prevent unwanted trespassers from coming on. However, I realizes that this is not economically feasible due to the massive sizes of the areas that these animals dwell in. I think the best that we can do would be to build extremely strong walls and barriers to prevent trespassers from coming in.
April 24, 2019 at 5:06 AM
Anonymous said…
With the ending of poaching, species will have a chamce to repopulate, with the regrowtg of the natural animals, the entire ecosystem will begin to become healthy once agin. Nature can bounce surprisingly quickly. In many places around the world when land becomes protected by the government, lamd will regrow. In manyplaces it is already bouncing back.
April 24, 2019 at 9:22 AM
Anonymous said…
For many people hunting/poaching is simply a recreational sport or activity. However, the scale of which this is happening is often the main reason many species suffer possible extinction. In my opinion, controlled hunting is perfectly fine. However, when it becomes evident that the amount of hunting/poaching that is taking place begins to harm the environment of animals and their population, I believe that the government should be responsible of making sure limits and bans are put in place in order to prevent total extinction of many keystone species. Whether its public awareness or government control, educating the public and controlling poaching rates could greatly reduce the rate of which animals are going extinct.
April 24, 2019 at 11:58 AM
Anonymous said…
Personally, I’ve never been too big into hunting. I think hunting animals like ducks or other birds is fine, because normally hunting these types of birds leads to eating said birds. It’s hard to justify killing a larger animal like a rhino or elephant, because at that point its just for sport. I think hunting for sport is really stupid, because its all about killing and that’s it. There should be limits and bans on what types of animals are hunted because there isn’t an infinite supply of all animals.
April 29, 2019 at 10:27 AM
Anonymous said…
I do not see any rhyme or reason to poaching due to its inhumane characteristics. Normally, controlled hunting is fine, however, when poaching is illegal in certain areas and people look for trophy kills as well, that is when the environment and its fragile biodiversity begins to crumble. Many human activities have caused suffering to this world and poaching should not be added to the list as there are many solutions to easily take care of this issue.
April 29, 2019 at 10:40 PM
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