OK, so despite my oft-repeated support for getting lead ammo out of the condor range (and out of the environment altogether), the State Fish and Game Commission has gone over the top by adding rimfire ammunition to the list of banned ammo in the Condor range. 

This article in the Sacramento Bee, written by a reporter who obviously has no clue about hunting or the condor issue, describes the most recent action by the commission.  Unfortunately, the article contains several innacuracies, including the following totally false and misleading comment:

The endangered condor was nearly driven to extinction by hunting and the effects of another man-made toxin, the pesticide DDT. With those risks diminished, a leading threat to its survival today is lead ammunition.

First of all, while a lot of folks did shoot condors out of ignorance, it wasn’t hunting.  Secondly, a big reason for the decline of the condor is that its ecological niche, cleaning up the carcasses of large mammals disappeared with the near extinction of tule elk, and the extirpation of the grizzly in CA.  The demise of the whale population, followed by the death of the whaling industry also removed another critical food source. 

The fact is that only a very few condor deaths are possibly attributable to the ingestion of lead, and there is, as yet, NO proof that the lead that killed them came from hunters’ bullets.  The very research used by the lead-ban advocates admits that there’s no verifiable correlation… although there is, certainly, a reasonable possibility that some of the lead did come from ammunition, it’s hardly a “major cause” of condor mortality. 

The condor researchers have also shown that condors aren’t eating small game or upland bird carcasses.  Lead from rimfires and shotgun shells does not pose a threat to condors. 

Secondly, another reason that the initial plan excepted rimfires from the ban is that there is no non-toxic alternative for rimfire ammunition… so including this ammunition in the ban is essentially a ban on an entire class of firearms in this zone. 

In the long run, I definitely agree that lead needs to phase out of our ammo boxes, but banning it all at once under the false pretense of “saving the condor” is a slap in the face to all hunters.  This is wrong, and stinks of an anti-hunting agenda (despite my early resistance to conspiracy theory). 

It’s critical here for sportsmen to stand up and speak out.  Make our voices heard in Sacramento!  Get on the phone, write letters and emails, and don’t let up.   Outdoor bloggers need to get on this too, both in CA and outside of the state. 

THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION! 

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