Posted on 08/28/2007 1:41:14 PM PDT by neverdem
SACRAMENTO — California Fish and Game commissioners signaled Monday they are leaning toward enacting a ban on lead ammunition in deer-hunting zones within the range of the 70 condors now flying free in the state.
At the close of a daylong hearing, commissioners asked that the formal public comment period on the proposed ban be opened quickly so they can consider enacting the ban at their Nov. 1 meeting.
"I'd like to see us take the lead on this," said Vice President Cindy Gustafson. "I'm very concerned that if, as a commission, we don't address this issue, others will address it for us."
Conservationists and condor researchers are seeking to bar the use of lead ammunition, arguing lead poisoning is the leading threat to the condors' survival in the wild. Bullet fragments in the flesh of wild animals that have been shot to death and then consumed by condors are the chief source of contamination.
"I haven't heard a credible challenge to the scientific evidence," Gustafson said.
Two other commissioners on the five-member panel said they concurred with Gustafson's remarks.
Moorpark College Professor Cynthia Stringfield, a veterinarian who advises the federal Condor Recovery Program, presented a comprehensive history of the rate of lead poisoning among condors since they were re-released into the wild.
She estimated as many as 12 of the 51 wild condor deaths over that period were the result of lead contamination. Without the intensive trapping, testing and treatment of condors, she said, as many as 23 would have died from lead.
"To me, the case is clear," Stringfield testified. "Lead is killing these endangered birds, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly."
The population of California condors dwindled to 22 in 1982, and the last of the birds was taken from the wild. A successful captive breeding program allowed biologists to re-release some birds beginning in 1992.
There were no incidents of lead poisoning during the first five years after their release, Stringfield said. The problem arose after the birds began to expand their range and forage on their own, and it has become increasingly acute.
Through 2005, there had been seven deaths from either confirmed or likely cases of lead poisoning, she said. That number has doubled in just the past two years with the most recent fatality recorded July 31 in a condor that had been brought to the Los Angeles Zoo for treatment.
Commissioner R. Judd Hanna praised Stringfield's report as "the best presentation putting things together" the commission has heard over the four years it has been considering the issue.
"They wanted more science, and they're getting more science," Stringfield said in an interview after her presentation.
But an alliance of gun and hunting groups has called the proposed ban on lead bullets "draconian." In a letter to the commission last month, the group said the proposal "reflects a hidden agenda by some to ban all hunting in California."
Commissioners were told nontoxic copper ammunition is now widely available for use in the rifles most commonly used by deer hunters, at a price only marginally higher than traditional lead bullets.
Legislation to enact such a ban is pending in the state Senate, but officials from the Department of Fish and Game assert if such action is to be taken, it should be in the form of regulations adopted by the commission.
Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, the author of AB 821, has said he intends to continue to push for legislation because the commission has been too slow to respond.
Nature is killing these endangered birds, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
If they keep pushing this it might lead some to conclude that if condors were extinct the ban would be unnecessary. There may be unforseen circumstances they might regret.
I wonder how the illegal alien voters in California feel about their bullets. Oh, I know, they will just ignore any darn law, LOL.
“Bullet fragments in the flesh of wild animals that have been shot to death and then consumed by condors are the chief source of contamination.”
I don’t buy it. Those involved need to raise make believe issues to justify their make belive jobs and make beieve emotion driven world. Birds pick at their food. Hunters remove their game from the field. If there is lead in these condors its from natural occuring sources or the fish they consume.
Leftists would never lie or fudge data to gain a desired outcome, would they? Nah.
I’ve always said depleted Uranium makes a better bullet anyway ...
How can they tell the source of the lead in the dead condors?
More concern for the condor than the humans shot every day in LA?
Maybe they should go after the Lead manufacturers. It’s not like Lead is an Element that exists in Nature and is listed on the Periodic Table. Not that they have Periodic Tables in schools anymore, what with the Map crisis that Miss Teen USA told us about.
I seriously question whether there could possibly be that many hunters killing animals and then leaving the carcass for the condors to eat. This makes no sense to me. Perhaps some animals aren't found after having been wounded but I wouldn't think that was a common occurrence. Can any hunters clarify how this claim might be possible?
Huh? Since when is copper nontoxic? They use it in bottom paint for boats because barnacles and such won't grow on it, and the enviros in CA have tried to ban it because they claim it will leach into the water and kill everything.
Just another thinly veiled attempt to ban hunting.
But, I’m willing to go along if they’ll also ban homosexuality on the solid grounds that they’re spreading AIDS all over the world and endangering the human species.
Screw the Damn Condors! The real purpose of this is to harrass shooters.
Note what Condors getting poisoned by lead shot into game animals means: Condors are carrion eaters. Condor sounds so much better than “buzzard” or “vulture”.
Anyway, he made the extraordinary claim so the burden of proof is his.
This should increase the use of the safer alternative of depleted uranium in small arms ammo.
Or maybe this will spur development into alternative forms of personal projectile distribution. Hand held rail guns with iron bullets, for example.
Maybe even the use of super frozen heavy water projectiles. That way we can secure our prey critters and help cool the environment’s fevered brow.
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