Colorado lead ammunition ban

[Oak]

Fyi...

Petition Seeks to Outlaw Lead Ammunition
Yasmina Dardari | 10/17/14

In a new Care2 petition, Paula Brown, a raptor rehabilitator from Broomfield, Colorado is asking the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to ban the use of lead ammunition by hunters after a number of birds have been brought into her facilities with lead poisoning.

The Care2 petition, which has been signed by more than 9,000 people since launching in late September (including more than 907 people in Colorado), is paired with a legal petition that Brown will present to the Parks and Wildlife Commission at its meetings on November 13 and 14.

View the petition here.

Brown says she was spurred to action after the facility received a bald eagle and two turkey vultures with lead poisoning in the span of just two weeks. Many birds ingest the toxin when they eat ammunition fragments left in carrion.

“We did a lead test on all of [the birds],” Brown told Care2. “One of the turkey vultures was above the highest readings for lead and upon x-ray, [we found] he had about 10 lead pellets in his digestive tract. His stomach was pumped and we are now getting ready to release both of the turkey vultures.”

But the ending was not so happy for the bald eagle. “The day I had to help euthanize her was the day I decided I was going to work towards getting lead banned in Colorado,” Brown says.

California banned lead ammunition for hunting in 2013, with full implementation of the ban expected to take place in 2019. The U.S. military has also announced it will switch to “green ammunition” — a bullet in which lead is replaced with a less toxic tungsten composite — by 2018.

Brown has until October 30 to gather signatures before the comment deadline ends. The Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting will take place at the ​Burlington Community & Education Center November 13 and 14 from 8:30am. to 5pm.

For more information, or for interviews with Paula Brown, please contact Yasmina Dardari at 407-922-8149 or by email at [email protected].

Care2 (www.Care2.com) is a community of 25 million standing together for good. People are making world-changing impact with Care2, starting petitions and supporting each other’s campaigns to help individuals, animals and the environment. A pioneer of online advocacy since 1998, Care2 is a B Corporation, or social enterprise, using the power of business as a force for good.

 

[jryoung]

I've been doing quite of bit of reading lately on this (lead poisoning) lately. I keep finding a lot of evidence of how raptors are being poisoned, but more importantly how the rates of poisoning drop significantly when a ban or alternative (hauling carcasses out) is put in place.

Golden eagles and turkey vultures have also had positive responses to chelation.

What confuses the hell out of me is why are condors in CA seeing the same benefits. That's the question I can't find an answer too. If you put a ban into place, and see a positive response in some species but no the key species you are seeking to protect, there must be something else out there or is it that the condors are ultra sensitive?

 

[Zach]

While it may be a positive moving to non-toxic, the precedent set by lawmakers is scary!

Just think, first the lead ban, then ammunition laws.

I'm trying to find an article written by a CA outdoor service. If i can find it I'll post.

 

[LopeHunter]

I am fine restricting the bullet material if the science shows a change will offer significant benefit by reducing raptor poisoning. I may need to get closer with the new bullet types but a caveman would be giddy to have the options I have for hunting.

 

[jryoung]

I am fine restricting the bullet material if the science shows a change will offer significant benefit by reducing raptor poisoning. I may need to get closer with the new bullet types but a caveman would be giddy to have the options I have for hunting.

This is one of the articles I have read in the past weeks that discusses the reduced rates op poisoning in golden eagles and turkey vultures the the first, area specific ban was put into place in CA in 2009.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0017656

Golden eagle blood lead concentrations are summarized in Table 1. The prevalence of elevated lead exposure (>10 µg/dL) decreased 58%, from 76% (13/17, 95% CI: 53%–92%) pre-ban to 32% (12/38, 95% CI: 18%–48%) post-ban. In non-migrants, there was a 100% reduction in prevalence from 83% (5/6, 95% CI: 41%–99%) pre-ban to 0% (0/9, 95% CI: 0%–28%) post-ban. Blood lead concentrations in golden eagles sampled from 1985–86 were similar to concentrations in golden eagles sampled pre-ban for this study.

Turkey vulture blood lead concentrations are summarized in Table 3. The prevalence of elevated blood lead exposure (>10 µg/dL) in the vultures decreased from 61% (23/38, 95% CI: 45%–75%) pre-ban to 9% (3/33, 95% CI: 2%–23%) post-ban, an 85% decline in prevalence. In recaptured individuals, the prevalence decreased 78%, from 60% (9/15, 95% CI: 35%–82%) pre-ban to 13% post-ban (2/15, 95% CI: 5%–45%).

 

[Zach]

Here's one article from the CA perspective

http://www.outdoornewsservice.com/#...er/c18sh/17EE3FAB-4697-4FE5-8572-E84D87873776

 

[jryoung]

Here's one article from the CA perspective

http://www.outdoornewsservice.com/#...er/c18sh/17EE3FAB-4697-4FE5-8572-E84D87873776

I read that when it was posted a couple of weeks ago....I think Jim is licking his lead bullets.

"Cost of non-lead ammunition will be from 300 to 400 percent higher than lead ammunition used for hunting."

Because no one in CA shoot accubonds, partitions, or trophy bonded tips? Everyone shoots soft points or core-lokts? Not to mention the fact that he honestly believes manufacturers will abandon the CA market? I would love to see the C-Staff/Board of Directors of ATK discuss how they wouldn't want to capture the growth in the CA lead free market....because no other states/regions are flirting with an implementation.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Because no one in CA shoot accubonds, partitions, or trophy bonded tips? Everyone shoots soft points or core-lokts? Not to mention the fact that he honestly believes manufacturers will abandon the CA market? I would love to see the C-Staff/Board of Directors of ATK discuss how they wouldn't want to capture the growth in the CA lead free market....because no other states/regions are flirting with an implementation.

Pfffft.

I'm sure ATK doesn't want the billions of dollars associated with the California market. That's just silly talk.

 

[mtmiller]

Keep the lead. We have too many chicken hawks killing all the sage-grouse.

 

[BigBull301]

This is purely a anti-hunting tactic IMHO. They are pushing the same agenda in Oregon now.
Keep the lead and ditch the junk science!

 

[putm2sleep]

Keeping the lead....

 

[LopeHunter]

As a conservationist, the choice re lead is easy for me based on the study referenced earlier in the thread. Is that study flawed when it provides data appearing to directly link reduced use of lead ammunition to reduced levels of lead poisoning in raptors?

 

[Oak]

Keep the lead and ditch the junk science!

Can you cite some of the junk science that is being used to support lead bans? I would like to read it for myself.

 

[Zach]

Can you cite some of the junk science that is being used to support lead bans? I would like to read it for myself.

Here ya go... Fun Reading

 

[sbhooper]

So, some think it would be great to make everybody go strictly to mono-metal bullets to save a few birds? Boy, the environmental, anti-hunting craze is even hitting Hunt Talk. There are way too many raptors anyway, and I really doubt that in the big picture, there are nearly as many killed by lead poisoning as there are by wind farms. Small game populations have taken a real hit with all the protection for hawks etc.

For those that want the mono-metals, you can buy me a couple thousand Barnes or Hornady monos so that I can take all of my bullets to a hazardous waste site.

People need to realize that this is predominantly another back door attack on hunting and shooting.

 

[have gun will travel]

What about the lead mines in Colorado

 

[1_pointer]

On another forum, the topic of lead and raptors came up. Here's a few quotes from vet on the topic:

raptors are not humans. they're not even mammals

I help treat several (like 5-10) eagles every fall & winter that are:

1) picked up by F&G with paralysis
2) picked up in line-of-sight to a gut pile
3) far above the toxic blood lead levels via independent lab
4) respond clinically to chelating agents like Calcium EDTA
5) lead levels go down on subsequent blood draws due to #4

keys here for the agenda driven:

only happens during open hunting seasons

only found near gut piles

verified by bloodwork

stops happening in units that go lead-free

) Premium meat for raptors = lung,liver,and kidney. Given the choice, they will consume this first , even on a fresh kill, nearly every time.

A deer/elk that was recovered by a hunter will likely have been shot in the lungs,liver, or kidney , no? You may take the liver home with you but do you take the lungs home with you?


2.) 100 micrograms per deciliter is a fatal dose of lead to a raptor. For a 3 to 6 kg eagle, that is 300-600 micrograms or 0.005 to 0.01 grains

so 1/100th of a grain (or less) is a fatal dose. A jacketed bullet loses 30-50 grains as it passes through the lungs and lodges into the shoulder for you to recover and weigh / photograph. How much of that 30-50grains is in the lungs ? Half ? Even if it's only 10% (5 grains), that's still 500x the fatal dose for an eagle.

it's a tiny, tiny amount of lead --certainly not an amount like spitting out a #8 pellet.

the majority of eagles with comfirmed blood lead levels above 100mcg/dl do not have visible lead fragments in their GI tracts on radiographs

So, for me it's pretty clear that lead from bullets can me a problem for raptors. I'm still on the fence of whether or not the problem warrants prohibition on lead bullets. Lots of things can kill raptors. IMO/E there's not really a shortage of them anywhere I've been...

 

[Ben Lamb]

So, for me it's pretty clear that lead from bullets can me a problem for raptors. I'm still on the fence of whether or not the problem warrants prohibition on lead bullets. Lots of things can kill raptors. IMO/E there's not really a shortage of them anywhere I've been...

Good stuff. I tend to agree. I think it should be up to each game agency and their commission, and those bans, if deemed necessary, should be based on local biological data. If you have large areas that have no wintering populations of raptors and show no sign of harming the existing populations, then there would be no need to ban.

I hate wildlife management by legislature. It is the worst way to manage wildlife. At least the CO petition is focused on the commission.

 

[emrah1028]

Good science, junk science, whatever. Lead bans are not usually pushed by people who genuinely care about flying rats. They are pushed as part of an anti-gun agenda. Roll your eyes all you want, call me a knuckle dragger, call me a paranoid neo-con, whatever. Most people pushing these agendas know that if you make shooting and hunting more expensive, fewer people will do it. If you can't take away the guns, you make the ammo so prohibitively expensive it pushes people away.

Think these people are happy with just limiting it to hunting ammo? They want to ban all lead ammo. Cheap ammo. Affordable ammo that draws new people and young people into the shooting sports. Do you honestly think if all .22LR lead ammo was banned (when you can find it after the frenzy dies down of course), that as many new people would be drawn to the shooting sports if they had to fire all-copper bullets?

And geez, just how many freaking gut piles are sitting around out there???

Emrah

 

[EBOLAVIRS]

How many birds do windmills kill every year but they are ok.....

Here in Cali it started with lead bullets because of condors, the ban has not helped condors, they are still ending up dead and nobody seems to know why.

Now they are going after lead sinkers for fishing. Next step will be to find some reason why copper is toxic, then tungsten, then any material that can be used for a projectile.

Death by a thousand cuts, give and inch and they take a mile.....like it or not as California goes so the nation goes.