Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:11 pm
Time: 10:11 pm
Results for animal poaching (california)
1 results foundAuthor: Hansen, Kevin Title: Crimes Against the Wild: Poaching in California Summary: California's wildlife is being slaughtered on an alarming scale by a new breed of criminal who kills wild animals illegally for money- the commercial poacher. The image of a poacher as a poor, uneducated man just trying to put meat on the table is outdated. No longer Simply an occasional deer killed outside the legal hunting season or catching a couple of fish over the legal limit, the age of large-scale commercial poaching has arrived. While more traditional forms of poaching persist, killing wildlife for monetary gain has taken the carnage to a new level and poses a significant threat to our state's wildlife heritage. Skilled, organized, and well-equipped teams of poachers are decimating California's wildlife and reaping obscene profits in the process. The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) conservatively estimates that commercial poaching in the state is a $100,000,000 a year business and is now the second greatest threat to our wildlife after habitat destruction. The variety and scope of the killing are staggering: • Black bears in northern California's mountains are tracked relentlessly by packs of trained hounds, run up trees, and shot at pOint-blank range. Their gall bladders are then cut out and paws severed. The gall bladders will bring $5,600 an OUl1ce in the apothecary markets of Korea or China as a medicinal curative. (More than the cost of an equal weighrof gold or cocaine.) The paws will fetch $30 to $100 each as a gourmet delicacy. A bear paw meal could cost $400 in some Asian countries. e In 1989, wardens arrested two men as they pulled their boat into Sausalito harbor with a huge haul of 600 abalone. The confiscated mollusks had a wholesale value of atleast$10,500, double that at retail. Consumers may pay as much as $32 to $37 a pound, making it the costliest seafood on the market. Some abalone poachers boast openly of pulling down $20,000 in a good month (Castle 1989). The mollusk must also contend with natural predation, disease, legitimate commercial and sport harvest, and pollution. Meanwhile, abalone populations are in precipitous decline in central and southern California (Karpov 1990). • In 1980, the Department of Fish and Game reported that 32,377 deer were killed legally in the state and an estimated 75,000 were poached (Sheehan 1981a, 1981 b). Many of the illegal kills are for the sale of the meat, hides, and horns. DFG also estimates that in excess of 1,000 deer valued at $32,500 are taker. and illegally sold annually in southern California. The estimate is based upon known commercial operations and arrests. Similar statistics are found throughout the rest of the state. Studies show that wardens made arrests in only one percent of the illegal deer violations and that only two percent of the illegal activities were even reported to DFG (CDFG 1986). It In the San Francisco Bay and Sacramentol San Joaquin Delta areas, poachers take enormous numbers of striped bass using illegal gill nets and set lines. One year the illegal catch was estimated at 50,000 fish - a number which matched the sport catch. Arrests were made of individuals who had taken up to 1,200 pounds of illegal striped bass in one night's fishing (CDFG 1986). With the fish going for as much as $3.75 per pound at a store or restaurant, a poacher toting several hundred pounds of fish can make a healthy profit after a night's work. Some game wardens estimate that more than 400,000 fish of many different species are poached each year from the Delta (Locklin 1991). I i e In 1988,16 people were arrested by wildlife officers in synchronized raids in California and Arizona, culminating a 2-1/2 year undercover sting operation. California wardens seized 149 venomous snakes, six endangered desert tortoises, a dozen piranhas, a 6-foot crocodile, and other rare and protected animals. Among the snakes was a rare Catalina Island rattlesnake, valued at $400 by collectors (Johnston 1988). Wardens fear that reptile poachers in California's deserts are stripping entire mountain ranges of resident snakes and lizards. Chuckwallas, a large lizard inhabiting the Mojave Desert, bring $75 to $100 in the illicit pet trade. Some wildlife officials suggest that commercial poaching is not new, but rather the latest incarnation of the market hunting that occurred in California and throughout North America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. During this era, wild animal species were decimated to supply the restaurant and fashion trades. The carnage was so extensive that it lead to some of the first wildlife protection laws and the establishment of state agencies such as the California Department of Fish and Game. However, modern commercial poaching differs from market hunting in a number of significant ways: 1) the scope of the killing is far greater, involving many more species; 2) foreign markets provide a new and larger demand for California wildlife; 3) new technology allows the commercial poacher to find, kill, process, and hide wildlife more efficiently than ever; 4) commercial poachers are criminals frequently involved in other types of crime; and 5) commercial poaching is extremely lucrative, second only to the drug trade in profits. Well organized and illegal, commercial hunting operations are open for business throughout California (CDFG 1986). If a wild animal or any of its parts can be eaten, worn, stuffed and displayed, caged as a "pet," made into jewelry, or sold as a purported medicine, it probably is falling prey to poachers. Animals that are poached include bear, elk, deer, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, wild pig, bobcat, coyote, rabbit, eagle, and other birds of prey, duck and other waterfowl, most fish and seafood, bullfrog, reptile, and even butterflies (Breedlove and Rothblatt 1987). Poaching has a long tradition in rural America: blinding deer at night with a spotlight, and shooting it with a coffee can over the rifle barrel to muffle the shot; using a barrel of molasses chained to a tree as bait for black bears; shooting a duck or two in the farm pond for dinner. But over the past decade, as wildlife numbers dropped, the stakes have soared. Word is out in the illegal hunting community that fresh black bear gall bladders are worth up to $200 each, a bobcat pelt $100, or a bighorn sheep head $3,000 (the value of each multiplying many times before it reaches the consumer). Poaching has become big business (Poten 1991). Commercial poaching in California is part of the much larger international wildlife trade that, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, grosses at least $5 billion a year. As much as 25 percent ($1.25 billion) may be illegally smuggled birds, reptiles, and mammals. With Los Angeles and San Francisco being major ports of entry, California receives a major portion of wildlife imports from other countries. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has only nine wildlife inspectors at the two ports trying to fight off an ever-growing tide of illegal imports. Of the 80,000 wildlife shipments coming into the United States through ten ports of entry each year, 95 percent of the shipments are never inspected, but cleared on paperwork alone (Speart 1993). Estimates put the black market in America's wildlife at $200 million and rising (Hanback 1992a). Wildlife runs second only to the illegal drug trade in profits (Speart 1993). Details: Sacramento: Mountain Lion Foundation, 1994. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 24, 2012 at: http://www.mountainlion.org/publications/Crimes%20Against%20the%20Wild.pdf Year: 1994 Country: United States URL: http://www.mountainlion.org/publications/Crimes%20Against%20the%20Wild.pdf Shelf Number: 126997 Keywords: Animal Poaching (California)Illegal HuntingWildlife Crimes |