Former WWE star Natalie Eva Marie, known in pro wrestling simply as Eva Marie, thanked PETA in a recent interview about why she chose to take up hunting.
The former wrestler appeared on the cover of Hook & Barrel Magazine for its latest edition. She said her godfather enjoyed hunting, but she didn’t get into it when she was younger because she was too busy playing team sports.
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Professional wrestler Eva Marie attends the WWE SummerSlam after party at Delano Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Aug. 21, 2021. (Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for WWE SummerSlam After Party)
As she discussed taking up harvesting her own meat, she revealed to the magazine she got into hunting after watching a PETA documentary about factory farming.
“Shout out to PETA because you guys made me a hunter,” she said. “Thank you very much. Because they did all the hard work by showcasing factory farming… so now I’m going to go hunt my own meat. You should know where your meat comes from.”
Mostly, though, she pointed to the nutrition wild game meat provides.
“One reason was obviously the food. (husband Jonathan Coyle) is really into nutrition and health and wellness. And anybody that has followed my journey by watching ‘Total Divas,’ and things of that nature, knows I truly believe health is wealth.
Eva Marie on May 14, 2019, in Los Angeles. (gotpap/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
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“If you don’t have your health, you have nothing. I don’t care: You can be rich and have all of the things that you think will make you happy. But if you don’t have your health, then you’re done.”
She added that she believed hunting was one of the things humans were “meant to do.”
“Hunting makes you appreciate food a lot more, and we make sure we have zero waste from the wild game we take,” she said. “When you go out there and you actually see this beautiful, majestic animal it is mind-blowing.
Natalie Eva Marie and “Game of Thrones” actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson lead a march through Times Square to celebrate the launch of Monster Energy’s performance beverage REIGN Total Body Fuel on April 16, 2019, in New York City. (Brian Ach/Getty Images for REIGN Total Body Fuel)
“I feel like anybody who has never done it should at least experience it once. I get that it’s not for everybody. But to experience it one time I think would do a lot of people a solid from understanding what goes into it, the love, the appreciation, all of the emotions.”
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
