Many environmental extremists view poachers as lawless criminals who, some believe, should be shot at the first hint of aggression towards animals or trespass in protected areas. In fact, most of the poachers are poor villagers who harvest bush-meat (meat obtained from the illegal hunting of rare animals) in order to make a living and support their families. The reason there are so many poachers hunting rare animals is that high society will often pay three to four times more for the delicacy of rare …show more content…
Throughout the African Republic, to the edge of Congo, there use to roam some 300,000 elephants in the 1970's. Today, thanks to the efforts of humans, less than 10,000 elephants now roam this area. In a smaller perspective, in 1985, before poaching laws were put into legislature, 4,308 live elephants were counted in Zakouma, Chad, compared to the 7,861 found dead. In 2006, conversationist J. Michael Fay counted 3,020 elephants in Zakouma, nearly 900 less than the previous year (Fay, Michael J. ). Shockingly, Zakouma is a refuge site for wildlife under armed protection and still, these large decreases in wildlife are being