Susan, I agree with you 100 percent.  Jerry Neff
----- Original Message -----
From: Norm West <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 22:04:12 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Re: A lead-shot column that should embarrass the DES MOINES REGISTER


   Appreciate your investigating the lead shot for dove hunting issue  
at the Rocky Mt. Elk Foundation.  Your perspective on the lead shot  
issue is well taken up to a point.  First of all, consider the  
sources of your references--a presenter for the lead shot and condors  
issue (not doves or pheasants), a very small sample size of one  
presenter's observations,  a small but significant misunderstanding  
of the bill--to ban lead shot, not switch to strictly steel shot as  
there are other alternative types of shot i.e. copper and bismuth,  
and the inference that if there's no research done on an issue then  
there isn't a problem.

   There are numerous studies that have shown the harmful effects of  
ingesting lead in animals and people.  True, some species (as well as  
some individuals within a species) are more sensitive to lead  
poisoning than some others i.e. it takes more lead in their system to  
cause the damage.  Just why scientific studies on the effects of lead  
ammunition for all game animals hasn't been done is one more example  
of our entire society's sticking their heads in the sand when it  
comes to our environment.

   And yes, I am anti-hunter.  Not anti-hunting, just the people with  
weapons traipsing around unsupervised who kill and maim as many  
animals as they can hit, take the head home for a trophy to brag  
about what a great hunter they are, leave the animal or at least the  
gut pile for scavengers to devour the fragments of lead that are left  
behind,  leave their trash laying around the wilderness,  assume that  
unless there is someone there at the time stopping them from hunting  
in an area that it must be ok to hunt, complain when they they  
actually have to hunt for an animal to tag because another hunter/ 
predator has culled the weaker animals from the area,  all the while  
patting themselves on the back for being such conservation-minded  
citizens.  Conservation-minded for game animals while the rest of the  
ecosystem can die seems to be the attitude.  And the above  
"attitudes" are why I'm anti-hunter.

  As mentioned at the beginning, I do appreciate your efforts in  
learning more about the issue of lead ammunition.  Keep digging for  
the necessary information and consider that  what is known about the  
harmful effects of lead ammuntion in some species, make it far safer  
to consider it harmful in all hunting until proven otherwise.


Susan West





On Feb 7, 2012, at 4:49 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> I recently returned from the annual meeting of the Rocky Mt. Elk  
> Foundation, a wildlife interest group that has protected 6 million  
> acres of elk habitat; mostly out west but also in Pennsylvania,  
> Missouri, and the Great Smoky Mountains.   One of the booths on the  
> show floor was from the Peregrine Fund.  Their issue is lead bullet  
> poisoning of birds.  They had displays that showed how lead bullets  
> throw off smaller lead particles as they travel, in this case  
> through a gel.  They also had at least a dozen peer-reviewed,  
> research papers on the ill effects of lead on birds.  The man I  
> talked to was working with the issue on western condors.  I asked  
> him if there was any evidence that lead shot as used for pheasant  
> and dove hunting was harmful to wildlife.  He said there is none.   
> He also updated me on a couple of things.  Hunters, especially with  
> older shotguns do get barrel damage from the harder steel shot.   
> When lead was first required for waterfowl the bird wounding rate  
> significantly increased, but as hunters learned how to shoot the  
> steel shot the wounding rate went down.
>
> I think there is some validity to the claim that this call for  
> steel shot for doves is getting its momentum from antihunters.   
> Many groups can’t get all that they want, so there are using  
> incremental strategies such as this.  If lead shot for doves was so  
> bad, where were their voices for the past century of pheasant  
> hunting with lead shot?  The timing of the demand for steel shot  
> for doves makes it look more like revenge once the battle was lost  
> over dove hunting.
>
> On occasion I write opinions counter to the prevailing wisdom on  
> this email source.  I hope that this can be regarded as “the farmer  
> and the cowman should be friends.”  I think that the Sierra Club  
> needs to consider the issues they promote more broadly in the light  
> of public opinion.  When some in the Sierra Club wanted to list  
> mountain lions as endangered in the state, I wrote that would be so  
> unpopular that it just would be a self-administered black eye.  The  
> steel shot for doves issue serves mostly to antagonize hunters and  
> reinforce their thinking of that whacked out Sierra Club.  Sierra  
> Club gets another black eye when there is no evidence of a  
> benefit.  I was in a hunting camp in Newfoundland last September.   
> I said that I keep a toe in a number of puddles including the  
> Sierra Club.  One guy said that hunters ought to beat up anyone in  
> the Sierra Club (he didn’t try).  Although some readers of this  
> email didn’t like the Des Moines Register article, it was  
> essentially telling the truth.  Let us decide issues based on  
> evidence instead of emotions.
>
> Lanny Schwartz
>
>
>
>
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