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Calif proposes lead bullet ban in condor areas
California Fish & Game Commmission is today weighing a proposed ban on lead-cored bullets, for deer hunting, in condor range (a large part of the state).
I know a biochemist who is flying there to testify. One of his views: lead may be a problem to condors because of a dietary deficiency. They're scavengers, and their beaks are powerful enough to tear tissue not to crack bone. As a result, they're calcium deficient, and calcium deficiency makes an organism exceptionally prone to lead poisoning.
Comments
It wasn't lead left in the carcases of animals by hunters that nearly extinguished condors in the wild, but loss of habitat that did the trick. In the 30 odd years since I graduated high school in California the population has doubled (approx. 38 million people now). Open spaces have shrunk, and grazing lands in the San Joaquin Valley (and elsewhere) have been plowed under or built on.
Posted by: RKV at August 27, 2007 11:54 AM
I have ended my membership with the NRA over the issue of condors and lead. I have been a member since I was a teenager. Aside from the fact that the NRA is on the wrong side of the issue, the second amendment isn't about hunting. When they remember what the second amendment is about, I will rejoin.
Posted by: Carl Johnson at September 6, 2007 06:04 PM