How hunting helps conserve wildlife

DW (English)

Hunters often run into image problems, accused of killing animals only for the thrill. In reality, they help take care of nature and preserve wildlife.

Transcript

00:00Would you be capable of killing a deer to eat its meat?

00:12I love nature. That's why I'm a hunter.

00:20This is Shana Reis. She's an avid hunter.

00:25Whether we bring down an animal in the forest or send it to the slaughterhouse from a factory farm,

00:31does it make any difference where the meat comes from?

00:38People have an underlying need to know where their food comes from.

00:42And of course, hunting is the most direct starting point for getting meat on the table.

00:49Hunting is trendy in Germany, and more and more women are taking up the chase.

00:54Like Shana Reis.

00:57Currently, about one quarter of students at German hunting schools are female.

01:05It's 6 a.m., and Shana's heading out for the hunt.

01:09Here in this hunting ground, we've mainly got roe deer.

01:13So today, we're going after does, either mothers, young deer, or a fawn.

01:19Her hunting ground is in Rhenish Hesse, a wine-growing region 50 kilometers southwest of Frankfurt.

01:25Shana's one of over 400,000 people in Germany with hunting licenses.

01:29Since 2017, around 5,000 more have been added each year.

01:36We live in an ever-faster world, where everything's always available right away.

01:41But with hunting, you have to give up some of that control and just sit there and see what happens.

01:47I think for many people that's the attraction, that you come back to nature and connect with it this way.

01:54She and her dachshund Henriette keep a lookout for quarry.

01:57In Germany, the most frequent game is deer, wild boar, and fox.

02:01Regulations specify which animals can be hunted when and how many.

02:05This time, like many other days, Shana comes back empty-handed.

02:12I go hunting for a reason. I don't do it for fun.

02:16I do it because there's a point to it.

02:19To this day, my feelings about it haven't changed.

02:22If I've been up in the deer stand 20 times or so and know the deer by name, so to speak,

02:26then it gets very hard, and then I'd rather someone else kill it,

02:30because I have developed a kind of relationship with it.

02:33Does hunting even belong in the modern age?

02:37Hunting has shaped our environment for thousands of years,

02:40certainly for 6,000 to 10,000 years here in Central Europe.

02:43It's always had an influence on wild animal populations.

02:49Hunters often run into image problems because they kill animals.

02:53Long ago, people went hunting mainly for food and clothing.

03:03If hunting is practiced in the proper way and such that other species that aren't hunted are left in peace,

03:08then it's actually a legitimate means of acquiring food,

03:11and it fulfills an important function in the context of game management

03:14and balancing human interests with the interests of the animals.

03:21Professionally, Shana is a winegrower.

03:24She's the fourth generation of her family to run the vineyard.

03:27Too many deer in the area can pose a threat to the grape harvest.

03:32The deer really like to graze on the buds in the vineyards in spring.

03:36But the buds contain the bases for the grapes, and if the buds are gone, there won't be any grapes.

03:41So, unfortunately, the deer have to be culled.

03:49The bagged game has to be cut up quickly and expertly,

03:52so the deer will end up as edible venison.

03:55Shana sees it as a way of showing respect to the animal.

03:59What's very important to me is that, ideally, the shot I fire has to kill immediately.

04:04I want to spare the animal any suffering.

04:07I want to save it from pain. I want it to be dead right away.

04:14Shana sees no conflict between hunting and her own love for wildlife.

04:19Shana sees no conflict between hunting and her own love for wildlife.

Category

Transcript

Recommended