Return to Nature
Member Thorsten Poehl explains how hunting has afforded him a greater appreciation for the natural world.
When I was a boy, I enjoyed hiking and sleeping in the forest and becoming one with nature. Then I became very much a city person because my profession is management. I always enjoyed the opportunity to go back to nature, and I found different ways to do that: hiking or mountain biking in the Alps in Europe.
Also, we bought and rebuilt an old farmhouse in Germany, and we started thinking about food. We can grow some organic stuff, and we do little bits of that. We enjoy eating some meat, but we don’t really appreciate the way animals are kept to produce protein for humans, be it chicken farms or swine farms. I don’t like to buy that stuff.
I have many friends who hunt, and one day, about five years ago, we thought, “Why don’t we actually hunt, because this is the most natural meat you can get?” These animals are born in freedom and live on a totally natural, organic diet in the woods.
And if you do a good job, you only hunt animals when you are very sure of killing the animal with one shot. If you do it well, the animal doesn’t even hear the shot. You don’t want to have the animal suffering. This is the ethic behind how I was educated to hunt. From an ethical point of view and nutritional point of view, I think this is the best way to eat meat.
We really hunt to eat, and hunt for whatever the season in that area is providing. There are deer and wild boar there. Hunting also has a function because in the last decade, in Spain, in Germany, in France, wild boar have reproduced very significantly and they destroy a lot of crops and cause accidents in cities. So it’s important that hunters keep them in check.
It’s quite an effort to get your hunting license in Germany. You have to study about animals, about the law, about weapons, about diseases, so you can evaluate meat, about ecological cycles. You actually become educated in the protection of nature and species more than anything else. Then you have to pass a final exam to show you have the necessary theoretical, practical and safety knowledge. I did it together with my wife.
Hunting has a long tradition in Germany. You have an area where you are entitled to hunt and you have to do many things to support the habitats in that area. Very often you do nothing but watch. Maybe I am out five times and I hunt once. But it’s not a disappointment if you can’t hunt something. It’s more about the whole process than the outcome.
When I have hunted an animal, I take some time to appreciate it. Then you give the animal something called the “last bite.” You put a piece of branch in its mouth and make yourself aware that you have taken this beautiful animal’s life for protein. It’s a contemplative moment, and I take this very seriously.
There are some people who say they couldn’t eat that, but that shows how far we have gotten away from where our food comes from.
As told to INTOUCH’s Nick Jones.
Image: Enrique Balducci
