Guest column: Ban all lead from ammo GEL.config.KeyWords =['Guest','column','','Ban','all','lead','from','ammo']

RACHEL GARST runs the nonprofit Creating Great Places in Coon Rapids. Contact: rachelg@ creatinggreatplaces.org • April 21, 2010

The killing of bald eagles sparks universal outrage. Our national bird is protected under federal law: A first killing carries a fine of up to $100,000 and a second is a felony.

Last November, Maryland authorities were seeking those responsible for leaving out a poisoned fox carcass that ended up killing two eagles. Now, authorities in Davis County, Iowa, have been after those who shot four eagles as some of the birds were eating deer carcasses near the road.

Before I knew better, I may have also killed bald eagles. This is because I hunt deer each fall. Eagles scavenging on deer carcasses can ingest fragments of lead ammunition that bring them a slow and gruesome death.

My hunting group prides itself on being responsible. We do our best to retrieve any game we shoot, but, once in a while, a wounded deer is never found. More likely than not, there will also be ammo fragments in the gut piles we leave behind.

The problem is that the ammunition traditionally used in Iowa is made from lead, and this lead is poisoning large numbers of eagles. Particularly affected are overwintering birds that scavenge deer carcasses and that may also eat pheasants that have sustained shotgun wounds.

Wildlife rehabilitators in Iowa recorded 26 bald eagle lead poisoning deaths in 2009. This number is only the birds retrieved; presumably, hundreds more were poisoned in the wild. Once the poisoning makes them too weak to fly, the eagles generally starve within two to three weeks.

Because lead mimics calcium in the body, it is particularly lethal to egg-laying females. This heavy metal essentially suffocates the birds by preventing red blood cells from carrying oxygen.

Last year, a raptor rescue facility in Dedham, Saving Our Avian Resources (SOAR), received 19 eagles with abnormal lead levels. I visit SOAR frequently. It was terrible to see these magnificent birds too weak to stand, trembling and gasping for breath.

SOAR tries to save poisoned eagles by using chelation therapy (at more than $500 a pop), but nearly all die anyway. So far this year, of seven lead-poisoned eagles admitted to SOAR or to the MacBride Raptor Project, every one has died.

My family now uses only copper deer slugs, and we require the same of any hunter on our land.

But still I pause every time I feed my family deer burger for dinner. Who's to say there are not tiny lead fragments in the meat I am serving to my children?

I am also looking at our pheasant dinners with new eyes. I used to be concerned just about tooth damage from accidentally biting a piece of shot. Now I am finally making the connection that our main dish might contain the same toxic substance that could be in paint chips, the one that causes retardation in small children, and can lead to kidney failure, high blood pressure and Parkinson's disease in adults.

Lead shot in waterfowl hunting was outlawed long ago, after research showed that dabbling birds ingested enough to be poisoned. Today, with growing evidence of lead-contaminated soil on shooting ranges, higher blood-lead levels in those who eat wild game, and rising eagle poisonings, it is time to ban lead from all types of ammunition.

I am sure that most Iowa hunters - if it means protecting our bald eagles and potentially even our families - would gladly pay an extra dollar for non-toxic ammo. It does not make sense to focus just on stopping those few who would kill a bald eagle for sport, when the rest of us are killing far more eagles, inadvertently.