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.
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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.