Worth billions of dollars every year, promptly following drugs, firearms, and human trafficking, animal poaching is the illegal act of slaughtering or capturing animals. Due to the approximated tens of millions of animals being poached for their fur, shells, horns, etcetera, there is a rapid decline in population, causing a myriad of species to confront endangerment and possible extinction. Furthermore, some of the most at risk animals include, but are not limited to, sea turtles, elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, lemurs, and gorillas. This illicit trade is mainly generated by human avarice, the belief that some animal parts possess medicinal properties, and the lack of other livelihood opportunities. To place an approximated price on these …show more content…
The suspected justifications of why this enterprise is even taking place is because of lack of government involvement, the shifting of blame from consumers to producers, and the minimal job opportunities in the communities. First off, most of the people who generate a livelihood off of poaching belong to organized crime groups. It has been reported in the past few years that terrorist groups partake in this trade to fund their militias. Moreover, poachers who fit under this category travel far and wide to hunt elephants because they have completely depleted their source back home, take Sudan for example. Even Joseph Kony, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists and past leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, was reported saying that, “No, I want ivory for ammunition to keep fighting” (nationalgeographic.com). Kony saw this illicit ivory trade as motivation and a source of funding to overthrow the Ugandan government, enslave natives, and rob communities of their