Animal poaching plays a huge role in the causes of driving animals to extinction. It affects various species of animals as the poachers would target to capture the animal, either for them to keep or to sell. It might seem uncommon, but animal poaching happens around the world everyday.
What is animal poaching?
Animal poaching is an activity where people would hunt and kill animals, mainly to get hold of a valuable part of an animal; such as an elephant’s ivory, or animal fur, which would then be made into jewelry, decorations, and even traditional medicine. Traditional medicine made from animal poaching products does not actually have any medicinal effects on patients, but patients see results due to a placebo effect. Many people poach animals illegally, sometimes as a hobby as it can help them earn a lot of money when they sell it on the black market, but it would simultaneously kill off the population of the species that is getting poached.
The history of animal poaching
Since the 1700s, animal poaching has already been a huge activity. It was mainly done for survival purposes, allowing people to have access to food and clothing. Although it has been practiced for many years until now, it was already illegal since around the mid-1800s. However, poaching still continues and people are still selling animals through the black market, earning them a few thousand dollars.
Where does animal poaching occur?
Animal poaching occurs globally; however, there are some areas in the world where animal poaching is carried out more than others, such as in Asia and Africa as there are the most exotic animals available in those continents. Countries with the highest rate of poaching include China, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Each country poaches different species of animals.
How does animal poaching affect us?
There are multiple ways of how animal poaching is able to affect us. Since animal poaching is able to drive animals to endangerment and extinction, food chains would eventually get destroyed. Other species of animals would find it harder to find food. Ultimately, this would lead to a shortage of food for us if animals of different species continue to die off.
Although illegal animal poaching might not be heard in everyday conversations, news, articles, it still happens everyday, affecting the lives of animals and decreasing the population of their species. The awareness of poaching can be raised by sharing your knowledge and information about animal poaching to your friends, posting on social media, and also donating to companies who fight to reduce animal poaching.
“Buyer Beware | Pages | WWF”. World Wildlife Fund, 2020, https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/buyer-beware. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.
Citations
- “Illegal Wildlife Trade | Threats | WWF”. World Wildlife Fund, 2020, https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/illegal-wildlife-trade. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.
- “Poaching Animals, Explained”. Nationalgeographic.Com, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reference/poaching-animals/. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.
- “Poaching | Description, History, Examples, & Control”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/poaching-law. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.
- “Traditional Chinese Medicine And Wildlife”. Nationalgeographic.Com, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reference/traditional-chinese-medicine/#:~:text=In%20some%20cases%2C%20poaching%20animals,poached%20between%202000%20and%202013. Accessed 1 Dec 2020