Animal Poaching Research Paper

The process of people poaching endangered or almost endangered animals just to make money by selling their fur or horns needs to be addressed. Many species have become endangered or even extinct because of illegal hunting. Poaching is more than just killing animals for their bones, fur, etc., it also includes stealing animals from the wild to sell into the human population as pets. Those animals are often killed to be used as medicine. When the animals are killed in the wild, it is not always done in a humane way (Snowdon, 2014). The animals can suffer greatly before they actually die. Some species that have a high possibility of becoming extinct in the next ten years because of poaching include, but are not limited to the tortoise, black rhino, vaquita, red-fronted

macaw, pangolin, bears, elephants, etc. (Actman, 2016). The list of endangered animals is getting longer and longer every year. Poaching is happening more often these days because of the extremely high price tag on animal skin, fur, horns, etc. Soon, the illegal poaching will be forced to an end because the animals that are being killed will have become extinct if the poaching continues at the rate it is going.
Most people understand that poaching is the illegal killing of animals for their fur, bones, horns, etc., but what they don't know is that poaching can also include kidnapping live animals from the wild and selling them for a high price on the back market (Illegal, 2013). Many of the animals that are sold off, either become pets or will be used as medicine. For example, in Asia, the people believe that rhinoceros horns can cure anything from a common cold to a serious disease like cancer.
There is little to no evidence that supports those claims, but has not changed the opinions of the people in Asia. That has caused rhinoceros horns to still be a product that is highly demanded in Asia. Rhinoceros are on the verge of becoming extinct because of how popular their horns have become in the past years (Illegal, 2013). If the world is to save all the animals that are endangered because of poaching, people all around the globe need to step up and do their part to help the government find poachers. Some things people can do is to not ignore when they see something illegal happening, but instead let officials know about it (Illegal, 2013).
Poaching is illegal in almost every country, but many places will turn a blind eye and let the poaching happen with hardly any repercussions (Illegal, 2013). There are quite a few laws in place to try and stop illegal hunting, but most of the time people will ignore the laws and do what they want to do. One of the laws to try and stop illegal poaching describes what season certain species of animals can be hunted, if they can be hunted at all (Snowdon, 2014).
If the animal is close to being endangered or is endangered, then hunting for that specific animal will most likely become revoked to give the animal a chance to increase its population size. Another law explains to people how the animal can be killed. Laws for deer hunting describe the type of bullet the animal can be shot with. The bullet that can be used for hunting deer is an expanding bullet. If an expanding bullet is not used, the deer may die slowly and suffer quite a bit before actually dying (Snowdon, 2014).
Poachers do not care about how they kill an animal. They pay no attention to whether the animal is in pain. Occasionally, the poacher will not even let the animal be completely dead before they begin to cut off its horns (Snowdon, 2014). Poachers normally only do that when they want the animals horns. For other valuable things, like the fur, poachers will wait for the animal to die, even if it is slow and painful for the animal.
Poachers traps are very dangerous.

Not only will the animals that get caught die slowly and painful, but other animals, that have no parts of value, can get caught in the traps as well. Poachers may only want a certain animal, such as a deer or a rhino, but their traps can also catch smaller animals that have no use to them. The poachers will then just leave the dead animal there and not do anything with the body (Snowdon, 2014).
One animal that has suffered greatly from this practice is the vaquita. Vaquita have become endangered because they get caught in the nets intended for other animals. There are very few of them left in the world (Actman, 2016).
Right now, the most popular animal that is being killed is the black rhinoceros. Currently, there are only around five thousand black rhinoceros left in the wild. The animal is being killed illegally for their horns. Poachers do not care about the rest of the animals body because buyers only care about the rhinoceros horns, so more often than not, the rest of the body will go to waste (Snowdon, 2014). In most cases, poachers leave the body where they killed it because being seen with the body would make it easier for them to get caught (Actman,

2014).
The horn of a black rhino has become extremely popular because in Vietnam and China the people believe that the horns can cure anything. While in reality, the horn cures nothing. The buyers also think that having a rhinoceros horn will give them a higher status in society (Actman, 2016). Killing an animals just because a part of its body will make someone more popular is a disturbing thing to think about. People are wasting lives because they are being self-centered and not caring about the effect it has on the animal species.
People also need to think about how killing one animal effects the rest of the ecosystem that the animal lives in. Or how poachers traps may hurt other animals, not intended to be caught. Animals like the vaquita are not hunted on purpose, instead the animal just gets in the way of the poachers getting to the animal they want. Other animals, such as the addax, are hunted just for fun. Even the people that are supposed to protect endangered animals, have been found to hunt the addaxes illegally (Actman, 2016).
The ploughshare tortoise is hunted for its extremely beautiful, and now rare, shell. There are only around five hundred of these tortoise alive today. Another animal, the red-fronted macaw have only four thousand of their kind left in the wild today. They are hunted only to be sold in the pet trade located in South America (Actman, 2016).
Pangolins are also an endangered species because their scales and meat are used in China and Vietnam as a type of medicine. The pangolins have been given the title of the most trafficked mammal in the world (Actman, 2016). Soon enough, there will not be any pangolins left to sell. Another highly poached animal is the Asian/African elephants. These animals are hunted for their tusks, meat, and skin (Actman, 2014).
The types of animals listed are only a few of the animals that are suffering because of poaching. If the illegal hunting and killing of animals continues on at the rate it is going, then there will not be any animals left to kill or sell (Heffernan, 2016). Poaching is one of the leading causes of animal extinction or endangerment. The poachers do not care if the animal species is almost completely gone. As long as they can get a big paycheck, the survival of the species does not even cross their mind (Heffernan, 2016).
Poachers do not care if they take a mother away from her children, which usually results in the children dying. When the children of a species die because of illegal hunting or other causes, the animals are not able to reproduce fast enough to keep their species from becoming endangered or extinct (Heffernan, 2016).
It is interesting how poachers do not care about whether a species of animals will survive or become extinct because that is how they make their money. Poachers should be extremely concerned with the numbers of animals in a species because without the animals, there would be no poaching. However, at the rate illegal hunting is occurring today, poaching may not be a problem for much longer.
Here are a few things people can do to try and stop poaching once and for all. When people see illegal hunting happening, they should turn the illegal hunters in. The less hunters that there are means less animals that are being killed. If people do not physically see the poachers killing the animals, but only hear about the animals being killed because they were sold to a shop, then the person should come forward with any information they know. The police can use that information and shut down the shop. That would allow one less shop that sells poached hunting (Tatro, etc. N.P.D.). It doesn't sound like these things would help, but they actually do help in saving animals lives.
Poaching is happening much more often these days because the prices of animals fur, horns, meat, etc. is increasing. It is causing animal species to become endangered or even extinct. The animals themselves can be captured then sold as pets into society. People need to stop poaching animals and soon or else there will not be any animals left to kill or kidnap. People, who are not illegally killing animals, need do more to prevent animals from being poached by turning in people that kill or sell illegally hunted animals. Poachers is an extremely bad thing because the animals being poached are not being killed in humane ways and other species of animals are being caught in the middle which causes one more species of animals to become endangered. If poaching does not stop soon, there will be no animals left to kill to kidnap.