More poaching...

[Pajarita]

Still another species that is been brought to the brink of extinction from poaching.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/world ... .html?_r=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmeted_hornbill

[Chantilly]

That is so sad
I just coninue to fail to understand how humans can do things like this

[Wolf]

Actually much of the poaching is quite understandable and I can not condemn many of the people who do this as they live in a level of poverty that most of us can't even begin to comprehend and these people are just trying to feed themselves and their families. They are also not the ones that are making any money from this poaching. These people need help to achieve a better life, it is the profiteers of this illegal and harmful trade that need to be caught and punished for the atrocities that they commit as well as the ones that they cause and encourage to be committed.

When I was much younger and could not find work due to my age and had to steal everything that I had, I very often hunted and trapped out of season ( poaching), but it was they only way that I had to feed myself.

If we want to stop this poaching then we need to look at the conditions of the people that go out and catch these birds and provide enough aide to make it unnecessary for them to resort to this activity and then prosecute the ones who are making the money from it and include harsher punishments to these people. There is no single or easy answer to this problem.

[Chantilly]

I see what you are saying Wolf, well then I cant beleive the people who buy the products.

[Wolf]

I hear you Chantilly, but we are the ones who buy the birds. Well they are sold mostly outside of the USA, but it is the market created by everyone from collectors to those using the birds as a status symbol to everyday people who want a pet parrot. Many times these regular people don't know that their bird was poached as in many places in the world selling wild caught birds is legal. Those who make the money get the birds for dirt cheap and then try to sell them through legitimate channels at many times the profit of the actual legal birds. It seems to me that if some of the people who are catching the birds for the poachers were perhaps given a couple of mated pairs and taught how to breed and raise them that they might be able to begin to crawl out of the rut their lives are in by raising legal birds and selling them through legal channels and leaving the wild birds alone or even actively protecting them. I really don't know how much it would help but it would at the very least be an attempt to help. Providing jobs would also help.

[Pajarita]

Yes, improving the economic situation of the poachers would help but, as long as there is demand for a certain product, there will be people willing to provide it even if they don't really need the money to eat. It's human nature... if you can make an easy buck, why not? So, in my personal opinion, the way to stop this is to make the demand not only illegal but also highly punishable while making a huge campaign to educate the buyers. These birds are not been poached to be sent somewhere as pets and they are not been eaten by anybody who is hungry, they are been killed for their beaks because the Chinese use it for carvings, same as the ivory from elephants tusks (another big problem!). We are talking status and vanity added to complete disregard for the environment.