Hunters: Lead Poisoning Animals and People

There has been a growing concern about lead and wildlife in our environment. Lead, an identified health hazard, has been taken out of the paints, gasoline and the pesticides we use in our daily life. In 1991, lead was banned nationally for hunting waterfowl. However, it is still widely used in upland hunting, shooting sports, and in fishing tackle. Lead exposure continues to be a significant health problem for 25 species of water birds and 37 non-waterfowl species. It also accounts for 15 percent of bald eagle deaths in our state.

Both upland birds and waterfowl pick up lead shot, along with gravel, to help grind the food in their gizzard. Eagles ingest it when hunting fish that have escaped sportsman. A survey taken during the banding of eagle young discovered over 50 percent of eagle nests had fishing tackle in them.

There is further evidence of the effect of lead on bald eagle populations during the overlap of gun hunting season, when there is a dramatic upswing in mortality rates of birds. During this time, eagles scavenge the gut piles of deers and these eagles harvest the meat - bullets and all. Recent x-rays of deer carcasses have shown tiny fragments of shattered lead ammunition scattered throughout the animals muscle tissue - and this may have not been seen by the humans eating that very venison!

It only takes a piece of lead the size of a grain of sand to sicken a human and the results can be deadly for birds. In all cases, lead is dissolved by the high acidity in the stomachs of the birds and released into their blood streams, resulting in toxicity to major body organs.

Let's go lead free! Please help spread the word about the importance of cleaning the lead out of your fishing and ammo boxes and taking it to the appropriate waste sites. Replace it with one of the many non-toxic materials on the market that are now being used for fishing tackle and hunting ammunition. Working together, we can make the environment cleaner and safer for us all!