 Stealing livestock as in cattle raiding classifies as theft, not as poaching.In 1998, environmental scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst proposed the concept of poaching as an environmental crime, defining any activity as illegal that contravenes the laws and regulations established to protect renewable natural resources including the illegal harvest of wildlife with the intention of possessing, transporting, consuming or selling it and using its body parts.They considered poaching as one of the most serious threats to the survival of plant and animal populations.