It seems a relatively matter of course and reasonable improvement to follow the federal lead on this and get the lead out.
Editorial: Cox and NRA to endangered condors: Eat lead
A Fish and Game commissioner pays the price for running afoul of the gun lobby.
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, September 15, 2007
If condors in California continue to die after being exposed to lead in ammunition, you can thank Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, and 33 other Republicans legislators who are carrying some poisonous bullets for the National Rifle Association.
The NRA is working overtime to head off efforts to ban use of lead in bullets and shotgun pellets in the condor's range, which now stretches roughly from Hollister down to Ventura and Kern counties. Lead is toxic. Condors are exposed to it when eating the entrails and carcasses left behind by hunters. Biologists say lead ammo is one of the largest remaining threats to these birds, only about 300 of which now exist. Just last month, a condor found in Kern County died due to lead poisoning.
Taking lead out of shot would make ammunition more expensive for condor-country hunters, and many are willing to pay the price. Yet the NRA continues to deny there's a lethal threat to condors. For months, the gun lobby tried and failed to prevent the Legislature from passing Assembly Bill 821, which would ban the use of lead shot in the condor's historic range. Now it is trying to pick off members of the Fish and Game Commission who are mulling agency proposals to restrict lead ammunition in certain counties…
… It's shameful that elected leaders such as Cox fall so easily for NRA propaganda. The federal government has banned lead from waterfowl ammunition for years, and it hasn't resulted in a ban on hunting, as the NRA claims will happen with current proposals on the table.
