Poaching

Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals; the law concerned may be e.g. the law of property or local or international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.

Poaching, like smuggling, has a long counter-cultural history, dispassionately reported for England in "Pleas of the Forest", transgressions of the rigid Anglo-Norman Forest Law. and romanticized in literature from the time of the ballads of Robin Hood, as an aspect of the "greenwood" of Merry England. Non est inquirendum, unde venit venison ("It is not to be inquired, whence comes the venison"), observed Guillaume Budé in his Traitté de la venerie. See also the Night Poaching Act 1828 and Game Act 1831.

In modern times poaching may be illegal and in violation because

• The game or fish is not in season; usually the breeding season is declared as the closed season when wildlife species are protected by law.
• The poacher does not own the land he is poaching on and does not have permission from the owner to hunt on that land
• The poacher does not possess a valid permit.
• The poacher is illegally selling the animal, animal parts or plant for a profit.
• The animal is being hunted outside of legal hours.
• The hunter used an illegal weapon for that animal.
• The animal or plant is on restricted land.
• The right to hunt this animal is claimed by somebody.
• The type of bait is inhumane, e.g. food unsuitable for an animal's health.
• The means used are illegal (for example, baiting a field while hunting quail or other animals, using spotlights to stun or paralyze deer, or hunting from a moving vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft).
• The animal or plant is protected by law or has been listed as extinct or endangered (see for example the Endangered Species Act in the USA or the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and similar laws/treaties).
• The animal or plant has been tagged by a researcher.

Only wild animals can be poached. Stealing or killing domestic animals is considered to be theft ("cattle rustling"), not poaching.

Plant poaching is also a public issue. A prominent example, from the United States, is the removal of ginseng growing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is estimated that wild ginseng plants are worth more than $260–365 per pound (dried) on the black market.