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British History:

poaching

The punishment for poaching in the king's forest in Norman times was severe: Richard I's assize of 1198 threatened deer-stealers with blinding and castration. Though the royal forests were exceptional, and savage punishments were relaxed, poaching, in its various forms, continued as a major irritant until rural society gave way to town life in the later 19th cent. Although in popular mythology the poacher is a solitary operator, organized gangs made an early appearance. During the civil wars of the 17th cent., the relaxation of law and order gave poachers much freedom and after the Restoration, in 1671, there was an effort to tighten up. Game was reserved for freeholders of property worth £100 p.a., copyholders worth £150, and the son and heir of esquires and above: these persons could hunt over other people's land and appoint gamekeepers with right to search. At the same time, improvements in guns prompted landowners to breed game in greater numbers. Poaching was then no longer a question of pinching rabbits from a common but organized attacks upon private property. The poaching war of the later 18th and early 19th cents. saw bloody affrays, with the landowners defending their game with spring-guns and man-traps. Blackwood's Magazine wrote in 1827 that there was ‘a war raging against the aristocracy’, and poaching was an important element in the Swing riots of 1830. The Game Reform Act of 1831 repealed 27 previous acts, declared a close season for hunting, allowed tenants to hunt and shoot on their own land, and introduced a system of certificates which gave permission to kill game, subject to the law of trespass. But any amelioration in relations was temporary, for further improvements in guns led to vast battues, in which 1, 000 birds might be shot in one day. Breeding enough birds became a large industry and the crops consumed by the birds caused bitter resentment. Confrontation between gamekeepers and poachers continued until after the Great War when poaching became incidental rather than endemic.

 
 

1. illegal, secret trapping or killing of game.
2. excessive traffic by animals, especially ungulates, on wet pasture fields causing rupture of pasture mat and loss of grass and clover carrying capacity.

 
Wikipedia: poaching
A seashell vendor sells seashells which have been taken alive from the water, killing the animal inside.
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A seashell vendor sells seashells which have been taken alive from the water, killing the animal inside.

Poaching is illegal hunting or fishing. It may be illegal 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 possess a license.
  • 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 means used are illegal (for example, baiting a field while hunting quail, or using spotlights to stun or paralyze deer).
  • The animal or fish is protected by law or that it has been listed as extinct animal or an Endangered Animal (see for example the Endangered Species Act for the USA)
  • The animal or plant has been tagged by a researcher

It is currently estimated that the illegal wildlife trade is worth 10 billion US dollars.[citation needed]

Note that only wild animals can be poached. Stealing or killing domestic animals is theft ("cattle rustling"), not poaching.

Plant poaching is also on the rise. A prominent example is the removal of Ginseng [1] growing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is estimated that dried wild ginseng plants are worth more that $500 per pound on the black market.

Historical aspects

In the Middle Ages, poaching was a form of hunting unique to the poor, especially during the eras when hunting was a privilege reserved to landowners and the nobility. In the 16th century, killing a deer (a royal animal) was punishable by death.

The poor typically hunted small animals such as rabbits, using snares and ferrets. Hunting larger game required weapons, considerable skill, and spare time, which the average peasant simply did not have. A peasant was far more likely to kill the lord's deer to protect his fields. Still, killing the deer was considered poaching, no matter what the cause. Outlaws could support themselves by hunting, even though they could get into even more trouble doing so. In the medieval period, wild animals were considered a major source of food because of several famines that demolished other sources of food. This led to an increase in poaching.

In England poaching was fairly common right up to the late 20th century. There is evidence that poaching was a major source of food for the rural poor. Many traditional English folk songs deal with poaching, whether the act itself (as in the Lincolnshire Poacher) or the consequences of being caught (for example, Van Diemen's Land (song), Geordie (ballad)). Perhaps because of this, poaching has been viewed with a kind of nostalgic romanticism in some areas, seen as a noble act to defend the rights of the poor.

Slips of Authority

There have been many national and international actions taken against certain kinds of poaching and hunting. Hunting for Ivory was banned in 1989. The Philippines have more than 400 endangered animals, all of which are illegal to poach.government have taken many steps to stop poaching.They have punished many hunters and one example is of hollywood acter Salman Khan.

Addressing the problem

Some game wardens have made use of robotic decoy animals placed in high visibility areas to draw out poachers for arrest after the "animals" get shot.[2].

Modern terminology

As of at least 1990 the verb is sometimes used to refer to the act of hiring employees who are already employed by another company (especially a competitor), orchestrated by a recruiter referred to as a "headhunter".

In 2007, the term began to be used to mean being harassed by family members. The term has also been used in the scrap metal trade.

See also

References

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Copyrights:

British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Poaching" Read more

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