Endangered California condors turning up with lead poisoning
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ Associated Press Writer
06/03/2008

LOS ANGELES—U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials are in "crisis mode" because seven endangered California condors have been found with lead poisoning in the weeks leading up to a statewide ban on lead ammunition.
The birds started turning up sick about a month ago during random trappings at Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley foothills of Kern County.

One bird died during treatment at the Los Angeles Zoo, where four other birds are still undergoing treatment. A chick and its mother were on their way to the zoo to undergo treatment.

Given that there are only about 34 of the endangered birds in Southern California, officials called the number significant.

"This is the highest lead exposure event we've had in 10 years," said Jesse Grantham, the agency's condor coordinator, who called it "alarming" and said they were in "crisis mode."

While officials won't know the source of the contamination until next week, Grantham said the birds were likely poisoned by eating tainted carcasses at Bitter Creek, Lake Piru or on Tejon Ranch. Of the three areas, only Tejon Ranch currently allows hunting.

Tejon spokesman Barry Zoeller said the publicly traded landholder is worried. The ranch, which charges anywhere from $900 for individual access to as much as $20,000 for a guided hunt for bull elk, banned the use of lead bullets six months ago.

"We're really concerned about what's going on and we're taking our responsibility very seriously," he said. "We don't want to stop and wait for what the source is."
Zoeller said Tejon is working with the federal agency to draw up more safeguards, including setting up clean feeding stations for the condors. The ranch will also ban hunting for 30 days until the source of the contamination is found, he said.

A state law prohibiting hunters from using lead bullets in areas where condors live takes effect July 1. The ban was proposed by supporters who said condors are at risk of death and illness from ingesting carcasses of animals killed by lead ammunition.

"We're pleased that Tejon ranch is now taking these additional steps to tighten their ban on the use of lead ammunition to protect the condor," said Graham Chisholm, director of conservation for Audubon California.

"No other private landowner has taken such decisive steps to help condors," he said.

The health of the condor population is a critical issue for Tejon Ranch Co., which has been trying for years to develop three projects, including one that would put boutique hotels and about 3,500 luxury homes and condos on land used for foraging by the condor. The ranch, which sits atop the Tehachapi Mountains 60 miles north of Los Angeles, is home to elk, wild turkeys, coyotes, bears and eagles, as well as a critical habitat for condors.

Last month, some of the country's leading conservation groups, including Audubon California, unveiled a historic agreement where environmentalists agreed not to oppose Tejon's development plans in exchange for 240,000 acres of preserved land.

The ranch hired a panel of condor experts to put together a plan they say will protect the bird despite the development.

Others, however, have blasted Tejon's condor plan saying that development in critical habitat should never be allowed.

Noel Snyder, one of the country's leading experts on condors in Tejon, hopes that this will be a wake-up call for the developer to do more to protect the bird.

"Maybe they'll be stimulated now to really do it," he said. "That's the hope."

Lead shot from Bird Carcasses is more likely. SO I guess they'll ban lead shot everywhere too.

There's a potential source of lead fragments not mentioned.

Human bodies dumped in wild areas by whomever killed them. It's common enough that the remains of murder victims are found in these areas. I've found two over the years and both had been gnawed on.

Condors, turkey vultures, foxes and other scavengers aren't particular about their carrion source.

So the USF&WS needs to issue a plea to gang bangers, drug dealers, serial killers and any other murderers to please use lead free bullets if they plan to dump the body in an area where wildlife may scavenge from it.

quote:

Lead shot from Bird Carcasses is more likely

Probably not. The more likely source is from varmints shot with rifles and left in the field. Pretty common in that general area.

quote:

How many bullets shot at varmints, REMAIN in the varmint? Aren't they normally in and out?

It actually has been studied and lead fragments do remain in ground squirrels and prarie dogs. There's more research being done on this now.

On coyote and bobcat sized varmints those of us who harvest for pelts want a bullet that does not exit.

I've 'autopsied' a whole bunch of bobcats, gray fox and coyotes just to see the internal damage done by my .17 Rem., .222 Rem., .223, 22-250 and others. And the internal organs are mush after the frangible little bullets expand violently inside the chest cavity.

So yeah, I'd say there's lead fragments.

On a positive note, the Barnes Varmint Grenade is a damn good bullet for harvesting fur, haven't had one exit yet and they're good killers.

Personally I'd prefer to have the technology available than not, and a ruling from a Federal court that finds hunters 'taking' endangered species via ingestion of lead fragments in shot game is a very real possibility. And in all liklihood a probability in the future.

quote:

Human bodies dumped in wild areas by whomever killed them.

True....I wasn't thinking about the proximity to the Super-Ghetto....

Might be from them eating "liberal" brains too!

Antis can't ban the guns so they go after the ammo.

We just had our annual hog hunt at Tejon. It may be last gun hunt on the ranch. We were asked to bury our gutpiles, probably because of the realtors and clients checking out the ranch for the 3 new planned communities. 18 golf course they need for them goofy golfers in the funny hats and pants to hit their lil white ball around.

I was also asked ot remove a YouTube video I made of shooting ground squirrels with a .204 that same weekend. The USFWS I was told, applied the pressure to Tejon to get the video removed.

I'll sure miss Tejon, it was one of the most spectacular places I've hunted.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
Might be from them eating "liberal" brains too!

Not likely however. Liberal brains are nothing more then a nerve bundle at the end of the spinal cord .

Ken....

quote:

Originally posted by Heat:

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
Might be from them eating "liberal" brains too!

Not likely however. Liberal brains are nothing more then a nerve bundle at the end of the spinal cord .

Ken....

My Dad would call that "Liberal decrapitation."

There is only one real way to save the Condor - convince people they are tough to Hunt, a real Trophy or good to eat and place a Season on them.

The latest issue of the NRA American Hunter did find the "Tests" that skinner previously mentioned were basically . But of course I already told you all that.

quote:

The latest issue of the NRA American Hunter did find the "Tests" that skinner previously mentioned were basically . But of course I already told you all that.

You mean this article ? Which is already outdated since it doesn't address subsequent findings by the other states.



By Kyle Wintersteen, Senior Associate Editor

In early March, Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck, N.D., dermatologist, marched into the North Dakota Department of Health and announced he’d found lead in donated venison. In this age of frivolous lawsuits, North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota quickly put their venison donation programs on hold, and North Dakota and Minnesota threw out 17,000 pounds of venison intended for needy families.

How Could This Happen?
With assistance from a radiologist, Cornatzer says he performed a CT scan of 100 samples of ground venison from three food pantries and 60 percent of them supposedly contained lead. “I’m concerned about people’s health,†he said. “That’s the only reason I stepped out here.â€
Cornatzer’s affiliations, however, suggest otherwise. He sits on the board of directors of the Peregrine Fund, which fought for California’s ban on lead ammo within the condor range and now has Arizona in its sights. Any suggestion that lead ammo could harm humans would do much to further the group’s anti-lead agenda. Cornatzer does not deny this conflict of interest. And North Dakota health officials were certainly aware of Cornatzer’s bias.
“We know he has an agenda, we are very much aware of that,†said Sandi Washek, lead coordinator for the North Dakota Department of Health. “It was a darned if you do, darned if you don’t situation. Cornatzer could have accused us of poisoning low-income families.â€
So Washek sent samples to the University of Iowa’s renowned hygienic lab. Some samples had no detectable lead, while others had several thousand parts per million. Those sound like damning numbers, but North Dakota’s sampling procedure has several flaws. Just ask the man who performed the study!
“I think North Dakota is drawing the wrong conclusions,†said Rick Kelley, assistant director of the hygienic lab. Kelley says North Dakota used an x-ray to isolate suspected lead particles. The most serious error is that only the particles and a pinch of surrounding meat, rather than the entire 1-pound venison package, were tested. It’s little wonder, then, why North Dakota’s data indicate high concentrations of lead. “We did what North Dakota asked,†said Kelley, “but they did not take an arbitrary sample. If you take a lead bullet and test it for lead, guess what, you’ll find lead. Deer are very large animals. Bullets are fairly small and I don’t care how they fragment, that’s a very small amount of lead for the amount of meat that comes off the deer.â€
Hunters occasionally pluck pellets from pheasant breasts, and Kelley says the lead fragments North Dakota sent were large enough for detection at the dinner table. Cornatzer disagrees, claiming in some cases the lead is a fine powder.
“If you shoot a deer in the neck, you may have contaminated the entire front quarters, because the lead can travel a foot and a half,†Cornatzer asserts. “In North Dakota we shoot a lot of deer on the run. If a deer is shot in the hind quarter and the bullet exits the front shoulder, I suspect, but can’t say for a fact, that the entire deer could be contaminated with lead.â€
Cornatzer and Kelley based their opposing views on the same venison samples, which actually points to another flaw in North Dakota’s research: Rather than collecting random samples of venison in order to reflect the average food pantry’s inventory, they used the packages given to them by Cornatzer. In doing so, they put faith in the validity of samples collected by an individual with an admitted agenda. Five of the packages weren’t even sealed and, incredibly, they were the ones targeted for punch samples.
Despite Kelley’s concerns, he sent in the requested data. Three weeks later, 5,000 pounds of venison were in North Dakota landfills.
Darren LaSorte, NRA-ILA director of hunting policy, said, “The actions of the North Dakota health department exemplify bureaucratic incompetence, but rest assured, NRA-ILA will continue to do everything possible to ensure science and reason prevail.â€

Science Prevails in Iowa
Get this, Kelley also did a study for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Prompted by the events in North Dakota, Iowa temporarily froze distribution of 100,000 pounds of venison and sent samples to Kelley for testing. Afterward, Iowa quickly resumed its venison donation program. So, why did two states reach two very different conclusions?
“Unlike North Dakota, Iowa randomly selected 10 packages of ground venison from an area food bank,†said Kelley.
Eight packages had no detectable lead, while two had insignificant levels (well under one part per million). “Our little study was not all that sufficient,†said Ross Harrison, coordinator of the Iowa DNR’s Help Us Stop Hunger program, “but our health department believes testing for lead in venison is a half-stop measure.â€
Simply testing the venison leaves many unanswered questions. For instance, nobody denies that lead is harmful, but how much must be consumed to raise its level in the blood? If lead is found in venison, is it from a hunter’s bullet or lead in the deer’s diet? Is lead contamination limited to certain processors?
Harrison says, “We’ve been hanging our hat on one thing: The Iowa state health department has tested 500,000 Iowans under 6 years old for lead poisoning since 1992 (that’s 70 percent of all Iowans born after 1986). Also, 25,000 adults have been tested, and there’s never been a single case of lead poisoning from wild game.â€
Nearly all the Iowa children who tested positive for lead had come into contact with lead-based paint, which can contain up to 500,000 parts per million of lead.
On the national level, doctors are required to report all cases of lead poisoning to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and, according to Kimball Credle, CDC public health advisor, no cases have ever been traced to wild game.

Where Does it Go from Here?
At press time, venison donation programs remained on hold in Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota pending further study, and California appeared ready to enter the fracas. Ultimately, the issue may hinge on the CDC, which plans to test known venison consumers in North Dakota for elevated levels of lead. Meanwhile, the Peregrine Fund was preparing for a conference May 12-15 in Boise, Idaho, titled “Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans.†(See it for yourself: peregrinefund.org/Lead_conference/) Guess who’s on the list of guest speakers: Dr. Cornatzer! He’ll be presenting his unpublished “study,†which further explains its timing.
“I’m just going to be presenting this research to show that it’s not just the condors that risk exposure to lead, it’s we as hunters,†he said.
The use of scant evidence and scare tactics is nothing new to the Peregrine Fund, which used junk science to help pass California’s lead ban. (They play down Dr. Richard Peddicord’s June 2007 report, “Summary of Science for Ammunition as the Source of Lead in Condors,†which found no evidence to suggest lead ammo is affecting condor populations.)
Cornatzer will be preaching to an anti-lead choir at the conference, but convincing hunters they’re poisoning themselves one backstrap at a time will be a tougher sell. Harrison expressed a sentiment for all to bear in mind: “We in the United States have been hunting with lead ammunition for hundreds of years, and there are no cases of anyone getting sick.â€

quote:

Originally posted by Skinner
“We in the United States have been hunting with lead ammunition for hundreds of years, and there are no cases of anyone getting sick.â€

Zactly...

Well, I'm still around, been etin leaded veni for gosh neer 25 yeas I reckon. Reckon all dem damn mountain men dun suffud from lead poisunun from shootun all dat game wit dem round lead balls and muskits.

When I was a kid, we ate nothing but birds shot with lead shot almost every day.

We would find lead pellets in these birds almost every day.

We used to keep air gun pellets in our mouths most of the day.

I think this s nothing but scare technic against hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
When I was a kid, we ate nothing but birds shot with lead shot almost every day.

We would find lead pellets in these birds almost every day.

We used to keep air gun pellets in our mouths most of the day.

I think this s nothing but scare technic against hunting.

Saeed, this is just another topic for politicians, just like Global Warming.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
When I was a kid, we ate nothing but birds shot with lead shot almost every day.

We would find lead pellets in these birds almost every day.

We used to keep air gun pellets in our mouths most of the day.

I think this is nothing but scare technique against hunting.

Saeed, this is just another topic for politicians, just like Global Warming.

Yes, I too ate game meat and held lead pellets in my mouth. This is yet another "unproven-scientific" liberal pile of crap.

A friend of mine worked as a technician at a Dow chemical research facility in California close to 40 years ago. They were studying the effects multiple layers of lead paint had on blocking thermal imaging. They painted “simulated walls†and surfaces with lead paint and shot it with infra red to see how much went through different thicknesses of paint layers.

While these scientists and technicians were conducting these “tests,†guys in suits were standing around watching what they were doing. He said there was never any mention of lead ingestion, lead poisoning, etc.
While there may be some truth to the lead poisoning from paint argument,

quote:

Originally posted by Skinner:
Nearly all the Iowa children who tested positive for lead had come into contact with lead-based paint, which can contain up to 500,000 parts per million of lead.

these tests were never about lead poisoning.

I fail to see where there is a connection to hunters in this case.
High levels of lead occur naturally in soil and water in some areas. Maybe this is totally a natural occurrence.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
When I was a kid, we ate nothing but birds shot with lead shot almost every day.

We would find lead pellets in these birds almost every day.

We used to keep air gun pellets in our mouths most of the day.

I think this s nothing but scare technic against hunting.

I agree.

There has been lead bullets since shortly after there were guns. And all of a sudden they just start killing Condor's?

Liberals will do ANYTHING to destroy real men, and that is their goal. This issue is about our demise, and lead is the vehicle they are using to get us.

quote:

to destroy real men

Saeed, apparently you're a girlyman for using Barnes X bullets and your homemade lead free solids.

What bullshit, the lead free regulation in the condor zone is a reality. You're far less of a man if you sit home and whine about it rather than load up lead free ammo and go hunting.

quote:

And all of a sudden they just start killing Condor's?

It wasn't 'all of a sudden', it's been an issue for a long time.

Lead paint isn't a hazard unless you:
A)Paint part of your body with the paint then loet it wear off.
B) let the paint crack and peel and let your children eat the paint flakes
C)LICK your walls to clean them
D)Sand the paint off the walls without a dust mask
E)Any or All of the above.