The trouble with lead

Back in the mid-'60s I had the honor and great fortune to be employed by The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in the big city of Portland.

It was a time of awakening as to the impact of lead on wildlife and our environment. In addition to my work with the sciences and kids at OMSI, I got involved in many of the wildlife projects going on at Sauvie Island Game Management Area, located between the Columbia and Willamette Rivers at Portland.

As I was removing mallards, pintails and other waterfowl from the live traps, I noticed that many of them were barley able to move; their legs doubled up under them; wings drooping.

"Lead poisoning," said one of the wildlife biologists. Then, after banding the pintail he had in hand and releasing it, he bent down and scooped up a dead mallard. "Wait till you see this," he said, laying the duck on the top of the trap.

With his pocketknife, he sliced the duck open and removed the gizzard. When he sliced it open, it literally exploded, and lead pellets spilled out over his hands.

"They're bottom-feeders," he said, "and the bottom of these ponds is knee-deep in lead shot, left behind by all the years of waterfowl hunting here."

Hundreds of similar events throughout the U.S., coupled with study after study that revealed the fatal affects of lead on waterfowl, culminated in federal laws banning lead shot used in waterfowl hunting.

Almost the same thing is happening again today - only this time the issue is expended lead in game animal gutpiles, ground squirrels and varmints shot with lead projectiles. Wildlife biologists are discovering eagles and other raptors - including the endangered California condor - dead from lead poisoning; not shot by lead projectiles, but from ingesting contaminated animals, saturated with spent lead ammunition.

Dr. Jeff Cooney, of Bend, himself a raptor rehabber, went out and located coyote shooting and trapping areas and hauled the carcasses to his x-ray lab. The amount of lead scattered throughout the remains was startling. He has done the same with ground squirrels shot around hay fields and found the same lead saturation. Just recently he sent me x-rays of quail, saturated with lead shot; the breast meat removed and the remains fed to ravens.

There were naysayers in the '60s who didn't want to give up the lead shot their grandfathers and fathers used duck-hunting. "Steel shot won't work!" many of them complained, even when they could see what lead shot was doing to wildlife in the marshes.

It's the same today too, only this time some of the hard-nosed hunters are shouting, "You're taking away our hunting privileges!" If those people would take the meat from the elk or deer they shot and have it x-rayed before freezing - or eating it - they'd sing a different tune.

Studies carried out on gut-piles left behind by big-game hunters have shown example after example of how lead projectiles break up into tiny slivers and gets into all parts of the dead animal, including the back-strap treat we'd all drool over as it cooks over the campfire.

Lead - in any amount - is not good for anyone, including you and me. And it's deadly for birds.

Gary Landers, Sisters raptor rehabber, sees it this way: "It's been my experience that even a small amount of lead consumed by raptors can have tragic consequences. Lead affects the central nervous system, causing a loss of motor skills. Think of a drunk pilot trying to land an airplane. A collision with traumatic injury will be the likely result."

In March of 2013, more than 30 scientists who have studied the effects of lead in almost every area of human and wildlife biology have formed a consensus and presented the following statement:

"We, the undersigned, with scientific expertise in lead and environmental health, endorse the overwhelming scientific evidence on the toxic effects of lead on human and wildlife health. In light of this evidence, we support the reduction and eventual elimination of lead released to the environment through the discharge of lead-based ammunition, in order to protect human and environmental health."

We still allow waterfowl hunting today - with steel shot.

We do not use lead in gasoline anymore, lead paint has been outlawed, and lead children's toys are a thing of the past. We still drive cars; we continue to use paint to make things beautiful and waterproof. It's now time to "Get the lead out!" of sport ammunition.