Local Organization Donates Wild Hogs to Help Veterans Cope With PTSD
A local faith-based nonprofit organization is helping soldiers and veterans by taking them on wild hog hunts and giving them wild hogs to process.
Chris Matthews, a member of Hogs for a Cause, said the organization gave out 34 wild hogs to soldiers on Sept. 23 at Fort Hood.
At Matthews’ house at Fort Hood, soldiers learned how to “field process” a wild hog.
“What I do is I teach them how to remove the skin, remove the glands that make your meat bad and how to quarter it up into manageable pieces to cook,” Matthews said. “And from there, if they decide to process him further, that’s on them.”
Matthews said he has an agreement with the game wardens and biologist on post to be able to process the hogs at his house.
Matthews also said he takes Purple Heart recipients, wounded warriors and active-duty members on wild hog hunts.
“A lot of soldiers — and veterans — suffer from PTSD,” Matthews said. “The one thing about PTSD that I understand, because I have PTSD, is if you don’t have an avenue to channel it, sometimes it does get the better of you. That’s why I do the hunts. I get their minds off of that; I give them something else to do.”
Hogs For A Cause was founded around 2011 by David Haehn and became active around 2013 in the Belton and Temple area, Matthews said. Haehn passed away earlier this year.
Soldiers can be part of a hog event and may procure a hog for themselves or someone else, said Kristine Haehn, widow of David Haehn.
“The meat from the hogs cannot just be passed out to the community at large,” she said via email Friday. “The Texas law prohibits us from that if the hogs are not USDA inspected.”
Matthews said despite the loss of David Haehn, he knew the organization had to continue doing the work he began.
“I met the man, and his heart was in the right place, and I just decided this was something we were going to keep on — keep his legacy going and give back to the community,” Matthews said.
Matthews said that since the organization is also a ministry, he works with a couple of chaplains on Fort Hood to assist with the organization. One of them has helped by giving him names of soldiers who need food from food pantries.
“We see the struggles, day-to-day, that these families that (permanent change of station) in are dealing with,” Matthews said. “And we just want to give back as much as we can.”
Also on Sept. 23, the organization gave away thousands of pounds of produce. Kristine Haehn said the amount of produce totaled over 43,000 pounds — multiple trucks of more than 8,000 pounds or produce.
Some of the produce given away included potatoes, yellow and green onions, carrots, melons, beets, lettuce, berries, leeks and hummus.
By Thaddeus Imerman
