These months, a record number of wild boars are killed in the Veluwe. Hunters like Leendert Houweling have to complete the objective. An assignment he accepts with mixed feelings turns out to be during an evening of hunting in the woods. “I decide for myself whether I pull the trigger.”
It is already getting dark in the forest when Leendert Houweling (42) suddenly stops. A clenched fist rises, the look is stern: ‘Stand still.’ With the binoculars, he observes three wild boars, about fifty meters away. Via steps to the left, to the right and a number of steps forward, Houweling observes for more than twenty minutes. Three times he pokes the shooting stick into the ground, puts the gun on, and hangs it over his shoulder again.
“A sow, a turncoat and a piglet,” he whispers. “I can’t get the defector under shot properly and I can’t see if the young is still drinking from the mother. If so, I don’t shoot. Among hunters, a code of honor is that you don’t shoot a sow if she is still feeding piglets. Because who will take over the care and teach the piglet to survive to prevent a gruesome death? People think it’s prize shooting, but you don’t have nature on a string.”
