Poaching has traditionally been defined as the illegal hunting and fishing or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, poaching was performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and a supplement for meager diets. Poaching was as well set against the hunting privileges of nobility and territorial rulers. By contrast, stealing domestic animals (as in cattle raiding, for example) classifies as theft, not as poaching.