Originally Posted By: BrentD
Just read the literature. Or look through my old posts on the topics of lead and waterfowl where you will find links to the literature.

Then you can come back and continue your personal attacks.


Science on waterfowl is one thing; science on upland birds, something very different. I can provide quotes from two or three state game agencies essentially admitting that the same kind of "good science" that showed ingested lead as a problem for waterfowl does not exist, and probably never will exist, where upland birds are concerned. Although that does not seem to stop them from periodically attempting to add additional nontox restrictions where they don't seem to make much sense.

The raptor rehabilitators will point out that bald eagles, mostly feeding on unrecovered deer shot with lead, are still getting sick and dying from lead poisoning. But we have to remember that we manage wildlife not by what happens to the occasional individual, but by the overall welfare of the SPECIES. And, as a SPECIES, bald eagles have made a miraculous recovery. The lead restrictions we now have in place may or may not have helped, but the lead we're still shooting does not appear to be harming eagles as a SPECIES. And other than maybe doves, in areas where a lot of shells are fired, it does not appear that there is enough shot deposited in any particular area by upland hunters to present the same kind of threat that existed for waterfowl before the lead ban. (And in the pre-ban days, it was also undoubtedly much worse for eagles, given all the scavenging they do around lakes and marshes. With lead shot banned for everything on federal WPA's as well as around wetlands in general in a lot of states, that's doubtless made it much less likely that scavenging eagles would ingest shot from birds killed with lead.)