NY state has a neat web site where you can look up laws based on key words. I did a search for the terms poach, poacher and poaching and found no match anywhere. I also searched the DEC game laws and couldn't find the term. I suspect that laws are written for very specific offenses. I'd actually be suprised to find poaching defined in the law. After all, what would be the penalty? Big difference between somebody hunting who forgot their back tag and somebody jack lighting trophy animals from aprivate deer sanctuary. I'd be curious if other states define it. If not then it seems to me that if poaching isn't a legal term thenDan the man Webster is all we've got to go by.