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From: John B. Holdstock [mailto:jbholdstock@shawcable.com]
Sent: August-09-10 10:22 AM
To: John B. Holdstock
Subject: BCWF ALERT #64/2010: Groups seek ban on lead in hunters' guns,
fishing tackle
Groups seek ban on lead in hunters' guns, fishing tackle
By: Felicity Barringer - The Seattle Times - August 2, 2010
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012516481_hunting03.html
As the U.S. military begins to embrace "green bullets," environmental groups
are pushing state and federal officials to ban the use of lead in hunters'
guns and fishermen's tackle. Their goal is to protect both the animals that
scavenge the carcasses of hunted prey and the people who consume the meat.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy plan
to file a petition Tuesday with the Environmental Protection Agency seeking
a nationwide ban on lead-based sporting ammunition and fishing tackle.
The petitioners argue that "it is now incontrovertible fact" that lead
fragments in the bodies of animals shot with lead bullets or lead pellets
are "a serious source of lead exposure to scavenging animals" and a health
risk to humans who eat hunters' kills.
Scientists have found that chronic lead poisoning in birds leads to
"appetite loss, anemia, anorexia, reproductive or neurological impairment,
immune suppression, weakness, and susceptibility to predation and
starvation," the petition said. Lead's toxicity has long been known, and
most of the uses that led to human exposure, like the manufacture of lead
paint, have been banned for decades. Lead ammunition consumed only about 3
percent of the 6.4 million tons of lead used worldwide in 2000, according to
a 2003 report by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Michael Fry, a wildlife
toxicologist who directs conservation advocacy for the American Bird
Conservancy, said that even sublethal levels of lead in condors, bald eagles
and other raptors can be debilitating, affecting their ability to fly and
avoid collisions.
But hunting organizations dispute the dimensions of the problem. Larry
Keane, the vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting
Sports Foundation, said the petition was "fundamentally flawed as a matter
of science."
"You don't manage harm to individual animals," he said. "Wildlife biologists
manage wildlife populations."
Populations of eagles, one of the raptors cited by the petition as being at
risk, are soaring, Keane added.
Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity,
said several regional bird populations were indeed affected by ingesting
lead ammunition or fishing tackle, including the endangered Mississippi
sandhilll crane; eiders in Alaska, which are listed as threatened by the
Interior Department; and trumpeter swans, considered species of concern in
the Rocky Mountain West.
"If we had to show major population-level effects on many species to
evaluate anything that caused ecological harm, we'd never ban anything," he
said. "There is compelling evidence of harm to many species, and there are
alternatives. It doesn't make sense to continue with it."
*******************
BCWF ALERT
John B. Holdstock
BC Wildlife Federation
Kelowna, B.C.
http://www.bcwf.bc.ca/
The world is run by those who show up.
If you wish to be removed from this list, simply click on reply and request
that your name be removed from future mailings.
Sent: August-09-10 10:22 AM
To: John B. Holdstock
Subject: BCWF ALERT #64/2010: Groups seek ban on lead in hunters' guns,
fishing tackle
Groups seek ban on lead in hunters' guns, fishing tackle
By: Felicity Barringer - The Seattle Times - August 2, 2010
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012516481_hunting03.html
As the U.S. military begins to embrace "green bullets," environmental groups
are pushing state and federal officials to ban the use of lead in hunters'
guns and fishermen's tackle. Their goal is to protect both the animals that
scavenge the carcasses of hunted prey and the people who consume the meat.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy plan
to file a petition Tuesday with the Environmental Protection Agency seeking
a nationwide ban on lead-based sporting ammunition and fishing tackle.
The petitioners argue that "it is now incontrovertible fact" that lead
fragments in the bodies of animals shot with lead bullets or lead pellets
are "a serious source of lead exposure to scavenging animals" and a health
risk to humans who eat hunters' kills.
Scientists have found that chronic lead poisoning in birds leads to
"appetite loss, anemia, anorexia, reproductive or neurological impairment,
immune suppression, weakness, and susceptibility to predation and
starvation," the petition said. Lead's toxicity has long been known, and
most of the uses that led to human exposure, like the manufacture of lead
paint, have been banned for decades. Lead ammunition consumed only about 3
percent of the 6.4 million tons of lead used worldwide in 2000, according to
a 2003 report by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Michael Fry, a wildlife
toxicologist who directs conservation advocacy for the American Bird
Conservancy, said that even sublethal levels of lead in condors, bald eagles
and other raptors can be debilitating, affecting their ability to fly and
avoid collisions.
But hunting organizations dispute the dimensions of the problem. Larry
Keane, the vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting
Sports Foundation, said the petition was "fundamentally flawed as a matter
of science."
"You don't manage harm to individual animals," he said. "Wildlife biologists
manage wildlife populations."
Populations of eagles, one of the raptors cited by the petition as being at
risk, are soaring, Keane added.
Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity,
said several regional bird populations were indeed affected by ingesting
lead ammunition or fishing tackle, including the endangered Mississippi
sandhilll crane; eiders in Alaska, which are listed as threatened by the
Interior Department; and trumpeter swans, considered species of concern in
the Rocky Mountain West.
"If we had to show major population-level effects on many species to
evaluate anything that caused ecological harm, we'd never ban anything," he
said. "There is compelling evidence of harm to many species, and there are
alternatives. It doesn't make sense to continue with it."
*******************
BCWF ALERT
John B. Holdstock
BC Wildlife Federation
Kelowna, B.C.
http://www.bcwf.bc.ca/
The world is run by those who show up.
If you wish to be removed from this list, simply click on reply and request
that your name be removed from future mailings.
