State commission set to vote on lead bullet ban
Next Friday, April 13, the California Fish and Game Commission
will meet in the Northern California coastal village of Bodega Bay
to consider a measure that, on first blush, would seem to be a slam
dunk.
State commission set to vote on lead bullet ban
Next Friday, April 13, the California Fish and Game Commission will meet in the Northern California coastal village of Bodega Bay to consider a measure that, on first blush, would seem to be a slam dunk.
The four members of the commission that oversees hunting and fishing regulations in the state will consider banning lead shot, either statewide or in the 20 counties where California condors now soar, including San Benito.
The issue is one of hunters’ rights vs. the survival
of North America’s largest bird, an enormous cousin
to the vulture that evolved feeding on the carcasses of grizzly bears, beached whales and mastodons.
The California condor’s wingspan stretches past 10 feet – roughly twice a grown man’s span when he stands with his arms outstretched. Healthy adult birds weigh up to 25 pounds. Yet, they are so perfectly adapted to their life of surfing the wind in search of large, dead animals for food that they can fly for hours without twitching a wing.
Condors do not have talons. They cannot carry off living prey. So like their cousins, the vultures, they depend solely upon the leavings of others – carrion – for sustenance.
And therein lies the problem. A generation ago, the world population of California condors was dropping quickly, as the species approached just 20 individuals. Researchers in the field suspected a number of reasons – loss of habitat and lack of large, dead animals among them. But the answer to the condors’ peril came from a source only one person suspected – lead.
Dead condors were found to have lethally elevated levels of lead in their blood, and fragments in their digestive tract. Analysis showed the led came from bullet fragments.
Lead is toxic to animals, and it’s the stuff of which bullets are traditionally made. While some birds routinely expel foreign objects, they tend to linger in the bodies of California condors.
Condors feeding on carrion routinely ingested lead bullet fragments, and the result was a slow and agonizing death.
Pete Dunne, a leading nature writer who has authored nearly a dozen books and countless magazine articles, described the death of a golden eagle in his book, “The Wind Masters.”
A fragment of lead the size of the period at the end of this sentence, if it lodges in a bird’s gizzard, will begin its slow work. The victim first will experience digestive distress. As the contractions that drive food through the digestive tract cease, the bird’s crop fills, even as its muscles begin to waste for lack of nourishment. A raptor filled to bursting is beginning to starve to death. The meat in its crop begins to rot and spread its own toxins. Then the victim experiences a loss of coordination – critical for a hunter. If the bird lives long enough, blindness soon follows. And then comes the inevitable – death, according to Dune’s account.
Lead is attractive as a projectile for a number of reasons. It is dense, so it carries its lethal blow better than many other options. It is soft, so it does not damage rifle barrels easily.
But it often shatters upon impact.
John Moir, who authored the recently-published book, “Return of the Condor,” presented X-rays of a deer carcass that had been shot with a lead bullet. Fragments of the toxic metal were scattered over a large part of the deer’s body.
Lead shines bright on X-rays, and studies show that a single shot sometimes disintegrates into more than 500 fragments, some of them microscopic.
And lead is as poisonous to people as it is to condors. X-rays of butchered venison routinely turn up lead fragments too small to be noticed by consumers. Once ingested, lead lingers in an organism, slowly accumulating over time.
Moir believes that human health is the most compelling reason to ban lead projectiles, and so does one local hunter.
“For years I’d used lead core bullets and I reloaded my own ammunition,” said Fred Goodrich of Hollister, who was a devoted hunter of wild pigs until recently, when he lost interest in the sport. “You used what was available on the market.
“But several years ago, they came out with solid copper [points]. I’ve never found the copper bullets to be less accurate than lead. The copper bullets would open up almost like a banana – deadly kills and a minimal amount of collateral damage.”
The downside? Copper tends to foul guns faster, and cleaning is a bit more laborious. And then there’s cost. Copper bullets are often twice as expensive as lead, but “if somebody does it reloading, there’s no cost difference,” Goodrich said.
Tests published in “American Hunter,” a magazine published by the National Rifle Association, showed copper points to be superior to lead in almost every way. And in areas where copper bullets were offered to hunters free of charge as a trial, the vast majority preferred them.
The sticking point for some is that in the smallest calibers, such as .22, lead is the only bullet made, and in small sizes other options may not be viable, Goodrich said. The smaller, inexpensive bullets are popular with people shooting squirrels or other small animals.
The issue is especially relevant to residents of San Benito County, since Pinnacles National Monument, just 32 miles south of downtown Hollister, is one of just a handful of sites where captive-bred condors are being released. With a global population that stands today at fewer than 130 birds, Pinnacles is home to 13, with another five due to be released this spring.
Two hunters recently shooting ground squirrels near Pinnacles drew in most of the area’s population of California condors. That required capture and treatment of the birds, at significant cost.
But lead restrictions are working elsewhere.
On the historic Tejon Ranch, a staggeringly large slice of wilderness in the Tehachapi Mountains at the south end of the San Joaquin Valley, a ban on lead was recently imposed across its 270,000 acres.
“We applaud Tejon Ranch’s decision to get the lead out for condors, and if the state’s largest private landholder can go lead-free, then the rest of California should follow suit,” said Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity.
A decision on a larger ban is set for Friday. The state Fish and Game Commission will meet at 8:30 a.m. at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab Lecture Hall, 2099 Westside Road, Bodega Bay, to consider three alternatives. The first is to preserve the status quo: no public restrictions. The middle alternative is to ban lead bullets in California condor habitat. The last is a statewide ban.
Careful commission observers – including author Moir – are not willing to predict the outcome of the vote, in part due to the death of the commission’s chairman on March 4.
Bob Hattoy, 56, was the most outspoken advocate of controls over lead bullets. His death leaves the outcome of the vote in doubt.
But for hunters like Goodrich, the choice is clear, for two reasons.
“In condor country, we’re usually using higher caliber weapons [that can use readily available alternative bullets],” he said. “Why not consider condors and take a look at the bigger picture?
“And then there’re the heath issues. What if you’re taking your 10- or 12-year-old kid out hunting and you both eat contaminated meat? That’s not a good thing.”
