By definition, poaching is illegal. Killing animals that are legal to kill is called hunting.
So, it's not a matter of "should it be illegal?", it IS, by definition.
gone forever
But the issue is that it doesn't matter if it's illegal or not, it's going to happen and keep happening until all the elephants are dead. The same way humans killed the last dodo bird, passenger pigeon, black rhinos, Pyrenean Ibex, Tasmanian tiger, and countless other species. Even if you and a bunch of other humans care, there are billions and billions of people on the planet, and many of them just don't give a damn. There are poor people who know if they kill an elephant, they will have money, so they kill elephants. .
eliminated by humans
Humans just want more humans, 100,000, 1,000,000, 10,000,000, 1,000,000,000, that's not enough. They always want more. More babies, everyone has the right to have babies, it doesn't matter that there are 100s of thousands of babies unwanted already born that need parents (150,000,000+, actually), people want to have their own special baby with their own special DNA that look like a little miniature them, because they love themselves and want to duplicate themselves because that's what they want to give love to, not to some stranger that doesn't look like them.
Bottom line, enjoy elephants and nature while you can. They won't be around forever, except maybe in zoos. And your grandchildren will probably have to pay $50+/lb for salmon, if they can even get it at all.
Poaching is already illegal by definition, and in my experience in Africa (Zimbabwe, Mokore region specifically), poaching is dealt with harshly by what are effectively special purpose police armed with AKs and tracking/attack dogs. I don't have any numbers for you, but the guy in charge of one of the crews I crossed paths with said a lot of those teams will just kill poachers now because the government frequently lets them off with a slap on the wrist.
However, elephant poaching specifically is almost a joke and catching an elephant poacher is considered celebratory in the US while over there it's like a minor drug bust at most; the rhinos are what the actual concern is about, and even then Zimbabwe at least tends to take it very lightly because of how valuable rhino horns are on the Chinese black Market. The African Elephants are actually grossly overpopulated, and would still be overpopulated even if 100% of all hunting permits were claimed because the government will only allow about 20-30% of the number they actually need to hunt down to be harvested. The elephants are also extremely destructive, and having a major impact on the depopulation of other African mammals, most notably the Wildebeest, which is also being hunted down at an almost unsustainable rate by the likewise badly overpopulated lions. Elephants do a reasonably good job protecting their young in the wild as well, so they effectively have no natural predators especially when easier prey exists. Due to the very high costs, relative danger, and social stigma of hunting elephants and lions though, they don't even come close to selling the maximum permitted number of tags anyway.
Basically the only reason elephant poaching is an issue at all anymore is because it robs the government of tourism money and robs rural communities from a huge food supply even though the governments themselves are too skinflint or corrupt to address any of this.
Poaching should be illegal no matter if for small animals or large.
You are killing a whole animal for their one part. Don't blame me when I shoot you to take your teeth and nails only. - My great grandpa saying this to a poacher (he was a forester and anti-poacher)
Definitely, went for a 2hr elephant ride with @Darine123, they hit the elephant on the forehead with a metal hook when it wanted to stop and eat. Noticed it was bleeding when we got to the river. When we got back to base, you could see the tears crusted in the elephants eyes, never seen such sadness and fear… really so sad 😞 looked like the only moment of happiness in the elephants life was getting to cuddle with the other elephant at the river - went straight to eachother.
Poaching elephants IS illegal. You can't just waltz into a protected game reserve and kill at your leisure. It is legal to hunt an elephant, but only after you get approval from the local government and pay a steep hunters fee (around $200,000 or more) and even then you are taken by an experienced guide who will watch you and make sure you kill only what you paid for and nothing else.
It's their country, their rules. If they want to let people hunt their animals in exchange for exuberant fees, then let them.
By definition poaching is illegal. All endangered hunted species should have tag hunting because that actually saves the species. You pay for the right to hunt and that money goes directly to the species conservation activities. That way people can still enjoy hunting and they can raise money to breed them more, make habitats etc. This does work. An individual might pay $10,000 to kill a lion which removes demand since someone has been satisfied. Then they use that money to provide medical care and buy more habitat lands etc that benefits many other lions. Whats the point of having that person kill a lion anyway then maybe go to jail if they are caught (but probably won't be) and then people build in the lions habitat and destroy a whole pride from successful reproduction? Thats not a better outcome certainly.
Poaching, by definition, is illegal. Poaching is illegal hunting. Doesn't matter if it's for food or not. If it's out of season and without proper permissions it's poaching. And many countries around the world have made selling products made of Ivory illegal to help stop the black market Ivory trade.
It should most definitely be illegal and I'm pretty sure in most parts of the world it is. I really dislike poaching; the fact that beautiful animals are killed and becoming endangered species is appalling. The consequences for these crimes must be high as to show anyone who breaks these laws will face extreme consequences.
It is illegal to kill elephants already in every country if I am not mistaken. But that does not stop poachers from killing them for their ivory. Just like here in the good old USA woman gets an order of protection from her husband. But he still kills her
It wouldn't be poaching if it wasn't. Come to think of it, couldn't you just flood the market with ivory from elephant stem cells? Probably not economically feasible yet, especially for elephant hunter demographics, but still...
@SlightlyEccentric bud, take some reading comprehension classes because I didn't say you disagreed. I said you use of "half right" is fallacious, "jackass"
it is illegal everywhere that why in some countries they cut the tusks off, so they are not worth going after but the poachers have out umbered the ones protecting them one way of stopping it is put the people in jail that buy ivory
Of course , but they could harvest tusks by selling licenses and just taking 75% of the tusks and then allowing elephant to grow back their tusks. Then elephants don;t have to be killed.
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