California Condor Saved - Hunters Near Extinction?

Does The Ban On Lead Ammunition Keep Hunters Away?

Ever since the discussion about banning lead ammunition started, I wondered about the longterm effects of the ban on hunters and hunting. Would hunters simply adjust to the new regulations as they have to previous changes or would the anticipated higher prices for lead free ammunition have a significant effect?

Lead free ammunition has been in use in many European countries for a much longer time. The benefits or disadvantages of lead free ammo are no longer subjects of hot discussions among European hunters. High prices for this type of ammunition are.

As a result, reloading cartridges is now wildly popular, though in many countries strict licensing requirements for reloaders were a deterrent in the past. No more.

Would American hunters go down the same path, I wondered.

In his article Lead ammo ban running hunters from sport, costing DFG funding Jim Matthews contributed interesting data and thoughts to this subject. The article appeared on March 12, 2009 in the976 Hunt Outdoor News Service.

According to Matthews 15 percent fewer wild boar hunters hunted actively in deer zones and wild pig areas where the lead ban is in effect. That cost the California Department of Fish and Game $ 200.000 in lost tag sales alone.

Amidst a steady increase of deer tag sales in the past three years, tag sales in the deer zones affected by the lead ban dropped “ to 58,023, a nearly 2,000 tag decrease” in 2008.

Much of the best wild pig hunting in the State of California is centered in the Condor Zone where the lead ammunition ban is in effect. It does not surprise that sales of pig tags fell “from 55,393 in 2007 to 47,266 in 2008, a loss of 8,127 tags.”

Sales of hunting licenses also declined. “ In 2007, hunting license sales were 297,694, the lowest level recorded in California since declines began after 1970, the peak hunting license sales year on record when 690,790 hunters purchased licenses in this state”, writes Matthews in his article. “They fell again in 2008, dropping to 296,790, a new record low.”

Chances are that exorbitant prices for lead free ammunition, a weak economy and ever more complicated rules and regulations bewildering hunters will continue to put a damper on hunting in California. Add to that the fact that over 90 percent of the wild pig population exists on private land where access is very limited and mainly available through commercial guide services at equally exorbitant prices and it becomes apparent that the number of big game hunters in California is likely to shrink even further.

This is just fine with anti hunting forces in the State.

Many, hunters, Fish and Game wardens (privately), scientists and experts have doubts in the effectiveness of a lead ban. There is no absolute proof yet that condors are only dying because of lead in their diet and consequently in their bodies. Other scavengers also ingest carrion that may contain traces of lead. Are coyotes dropping dead left and right? Are foxes and wild pigs rolling over from lead poisoning after gorging on some carcass or the gut pile from a successful hunt?

But even before solid data establish lead as the killer of condors (and other critters, of course), environmentalists and anti hunting forces are calling for an extension of the lead ban to the entire State of California. Of course, the manufacturers of lead free bullets were quick to join the cause. As in the past, Barnes is leading the pack.

There seems to be a convergence of two powerful groups working together at least temporarily to further their own interests. The manufacturers of lead free ammunition and the environmentalists who want to outlaw hunting completely.

Yet this alliance can only be temporary. Where from would gun and ammo manufacturers get their sales? Eventually this group will have to come around and promote hunting in order to stay in business.

Therefore, I am more concerned about the anti hunting forces. Their strategy to use protection of the environment and endangered species as a weapon against hunting is a clever one. It first limits hunting an individual species in a limited area, then slowly but steadily expands that area, adds more species that need protection to the pallet thus even further widening the scope of game and regions off limits to hunting. Over time these small baby steps can indeed do away with hunting as we know it today.

It also tarnishes the reputation of hunters. They become murderers of Bambi and killers of Miss Piggy in the eyes of their own children and of non-hunters. Who wants to be called a Bambi killer?

Today hunters have to deal with the ban on leaded ammunition in the condor zone. But there are already calls to expand this lead ban statewide. And already there are voices demanding to prohibit hunting in California's deserts in order to protect tortoises. Can you see the trend?

Similar developments are under way in Europe as well where environmental protection groups in most countries are noisily demanding a complete ban of all types of hunting in their respective countries.

While anti hunting forces are determined and well organized with a clearly defined goal, hunters and hunting oriented commercial interests on the other hand are split up into many diverging groups of interest. Though they all profess to cater to the needs of hunters, manufacturers of hunting equipment, landowners with big game on their properties, outfitters, guides, government agencies, politicians and individual hunters all have their own goals – to fill their own pockets. With profits, glory and meat, that is.

Until hunters organize as well and form a congruent and strong interest group to promote hunting, they are indeed in danger of becoming extinct. But not from the ban on lead ammunition but from their inability to stand up for their own interests.

PJJ