Poaching is the illegal taking and killing of animals. it is a cruel and destructive criminal activity that is decimating the planet’s wildlife and severely damaging ecosystems to the point of collapse. Along with illegal wildlife trade, it has played a major role both in the decline of wild cat populations worldwide and extinction of several wild cat species and subspecies.
In most countries, hunting is a heavily regulated activity. Types of illegal hunting (poaching) laws include:
- Killing an endangered or otherwise legally protected animal
- Taking a legally protected animal and selling it
- Using an illegal weapon to kill an animal
- Killing an animal any time outside of the regular hunting season
- Killing an animal without a license
- Violating hunting restrictions on the number of animals that can be killed
- Taking or killing an animal on private or restricted property
- Using the wrong type of weapon to kill an animal
- Hunting an animal with an aircraft or moving vehicle
- Shooting an animal in a confined area, also called canned hunting
- Killing an animal that has been tagged by a researcher
Despite an abundance of national and international regulations, the illegal wildlife trade has grown into billion-dollar industry.
Wild cats are still being killed in large numbers for their fur and body parts, or just for sport. You can read more about the illegal trade in tigers at traffic.org.