Off the charts with this claim.
Posted on 03/31/2008 12:42:01 PM PDT by neverdem
Associated Press
Thousands of pounds of venison donated to food pantries this year has become a contentious gift in three states.
Officials in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa warn that the meat could be contaminated by lead from bullets. Hunting groups are calling it an overreaction.
"It's alarmist and not supported by any science," said Lawrence Keane, a vice president and lawyer for the Newton, Conn.-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. "High quality protein is now taken out of the mouths of needy, hungry people."
North Dakota health officials on Wednesday told food pantries in the state to throw out donated venison, saying it may have lead fragments. Officials in Minnesota and Iowa followed with similar alerts, asking that venison in those states not be distributed.
Gov. John Hoeven said the alerts were issued as a precaution. He said the state has a "tremendous working relationship" with hunters, and the questions raised about venison are new.
Safari Club International's Sportsmen Against Hunger program donated 317,000 pounds of venison last year to the needy, said Doug Burdin, a lawyer for the Tucson, Ariz.-based group. The meat donated by hunters was enough for more than 1.2 million meals, he said.
"It's provided a lot of free meals to a lot of people," Burdin said. "Hunters are doing something they love and helping others at the same time. This is disheartening, and we certainly don't think this program should come to an end on the unscientific assessment that has occurred here."
Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and hunter, alerted health officials after he conducted his own tests on venison using a CT scanner and found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples. The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the results on at least five samples of venison destined for food pantries.
"This isn't just a food pantry problem. This is a nationwide problem," Cornatzer said Friday.
Hunters have alternatives to lead, he said. "I'm a big hunter. I've already purchased four boxes of copper bullets to next year," Cornatzer said.
The North Dakota Community Action Partnership distributed 17,000 pounds of venison from 381 donated deer after last year's hunting season, a number that has tripled since the program began in North Dakota in 2004, executive director Ann Pollert said. At least 4,000 pounds of venison were in food pantries in the state when the health department issued its warning, she said.
The state has about 45 food pantries, and surveys have shown a need for more than 70,000 pounds of venison annually, Poller said. She hopes people will donate other types of meat.
"Meat is so expensive," she said. "This is going to have an impact - it's a quality, lean meat protein source that we're losing."
Jason Foss, president of Minot-based Pheasants for the Future, said hunters from his group donated about 100 deer this year to the program. He believes the issue of lead-contaminated meat is "a little extreme at this point."
"Sportsmen have been shooting deer for hundreds of years with lead bullets with no problems," he said. "I hope this program keeps rolling along because so much good comes out of it."
National Shooting Sports Foundation: http://www.nssf.org
I think you are partly right. Most hunting ammo is jacketed and not solid lead and does not come apart like that. I’m thinking the particals are more likely bone...
Let them eat cake!
I didn’t think of that! If you twiddle the CT knobs, bone could be made to saturate like that and appear to be very dense, you are right!
Somebody needs to challenge this guy on fact and technique.
“Hunters have alternatives to lead, he said. “I’m a big hunter. I’ve already purchased four boxes of copper bullets to next year,” Cornatzer said. “
No, you haven’t. You may have purchased copper jacketed or copper encapsulated bullets, though. Neither of which will guarantee that you won’t have lead in the wound area of the deer.
Send it to me.
oh no - the line forms here LOL.....chicken fried with gravy
No bird shot in the meat.
.
They are making solid copper bullets now but mostly for pistols in indoor ranges. They do have copper rifle ammo, mostly for the same application. The solid lead pistol bullets were leaving vaporized lead in the air of the indoor ranges.
I don’t think it would be very good for hunting though... too light for a good balistic cooeffecent in long range shooting...
The amount of lead showing up in those venison packages would lead me to believe the poor deer was shot with a gatling gun and no one bothered to remove the slugs. I find it far fetched to believe that a deer felled with a single clean shot is riddled with lead fragments particularly if the wound area was excised.
Well....why don’t they start ‘clubbing’ the deer to death like they do to seals?
Oooppps.....silly me....forgot deer can run.
pinger
No lead in my venison, just 3 or 4 surgically sharp blades which are removed to be used again. (I recycle my game harvest equipment.)
Off the charts with this claim.
Liberals sure like using junk science to promote their radical agendas. The meat around the bullet entrance/exit wound is discarded.
I switched from guns to bows a years back ( it just wasn’t a challenge ) and thus am lead free. Hooray!
Bite the bullet: lead poisoning after ingestion of 206 lead bullets.
McNutt TK, Chambers-Emerson J, Dethlefsen M, Shah R.
Florida Poison Information Center, Tampa General Hospital, 33601, USA.
Vet Hum Toxicol. 2001 Oct;43(5):288-9.
A 45-y-o male with a history of schizophrenia was admitted to a local VA psychiatric unit. Five days later, endoscopy due to abdominal pain, gastrointestinal bleeding and blood hemoglobin of 5.6 g/dL revealed bullets in the stomach. On subsequent radiograph, > 50 bullets were visualized in the stomach and intestines. Poison Center recommendations included whole bowel irrigation and a blood lead level. After poor results with gastrointestinal decontamination and a repeat radiograph showing > 100 cartridges, surgical intervention was considered but not performed due to perceived risk of bullet detonation from electrocautery. The blood lead was reported as 391 mcg/dL. Calcium EDTA therapy was initiated, followed by aggressive gastrointestinal decontamination. Four days of whole bowel irrigation facilitated passage of 206 cartridges over the next 10 days. The patient was discharged on a 14-day course of 600 mg Succimer tid to treat the bone lead deposits and blood lead level of 49 mcg/dl. An outpatient visit 6 w later showed the blood lead level had dropped to 24 mcg/dl. Aggressive gastrointestinal decontamination and calcium EDTA and Succimer administration successfully treated an ingestion lead bullets and the resulting lead poisoning.
I think the problem would be with children consuming it.
This guy is apparently unfamiliar with the concept of bioavailability of metals.
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