Hunters sometimes dare to have a more negative reputation. Not for the first time, hunting is labeled as purely a kind of game that only causes animal suffering and nuisance. Geert Van den Bosch (56) leads the association that represents more than two-thirds of all Flemish hunters as general director at Hubertus Vereniging Vlaanderen. In this interview, this nature lover and hunter himself shows that hunting involves much more than what the man or woman in the street would usually expect.
Geert, for almost 50 years you have been walking through our municipality with binoculars around your neck and rubber boots on your feet. Tell us a little about yourself.
In my childhood I could always be found outside. At home they sometimes laughed that it looked like I was born with rubber boots on. Since I was six years old, I was a regular at the Hospital Sisters of De Bist Castle in the Beukenlaan in Kessel. A nun from that congregation taught me to fish for everything that lived in the castle ponds. With the sisters’ rifle I shot at the muskrats that were causing damage to the banks of the ponds.
The sisters raised chickens and rabbits to prepare in the kitchen. As a child I helped with feeding, but also with slaughter. At that age you don’t ask yourself any questions and you are open to that kind of thing. I was taught that all this fitted within the normal cycle of life and death.
In the same period, the manager and gardener of the castle grounds taught me everything he knew about plants, birds and fish. I had an incredibly fun and educational childhood on the domain. In addition to the nature lover, the hunter and fisherman in me also arose there.
You have been an active hunter since 1996. How did you become that?
Through my then father-in-law, I came into contact with hunting as a driver. Since I was already slaughtering chickens and rabbits as a child, hunting was an extension of how I grew up. Staying in nature, experiencing it, harvesting and enjoying culinary delights… It suited who I am.
In 1996 I took the hunting exam myself and became a hunter.
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