In a typical act of generosity, grouse moors are donating excess carcasses of lead-shot Red Grouse to the poor and elderly. The science shows that the average lead-shot Red Grouse has lead levels that are higher than would be legal in other meats. Lead is a poison for which there is no harmless level for…
Category: Lead
400 waterfowl will die from lead poisoning in the UK today
The estimate of c73,000 waterfowl being poisoned each winter in the UK by ingesting lead ammunition means that c400 will die from poisoning today. And tomorrow. And Sunday. And Monday. Poisoned – hardly a clean kill. See these videos about lead poisoning (here and here and here and here) and then realise that you can…
BASC is clueless
In a muffled statement, because it’s very difficult to hear the words of those whose heads are stuck in the sand, BASC say that: ‘there is no risk to those who do not eat shot game meat more than once a week throughout the year’. This simply isn’t true. There is no level at which…
RSPB and WWT support Rob Sheldon’s e-petition
Yesterday the RSPB and WWT started to mobilise their memberships to support Rob Sheldon’s e-petition to ban lead ammunition. This is good to see. The main RSPB Twitter account, @natures_voice tweeted once yesterday (and again this morning) and this was backed up by rather more active support from @rspbcymru and @jazzyjeff, and @wwtconservation and @wwtworldwide…
Coverage of yesterday’s lead report
As well as the Today programme, there was coverage of the Oxford Lead Symposium publication on BBC TV at breakfast time. This online piece with interviews with WWT staff, Danish hunters (‘I’m a conservationist,’ said Niels Kanstrup, ‘I’m a hunter, too. I think it’s a fair and sustainable way to use natural resources, but we…