One Test Keeps Venison from the Hungry

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.nrahuntersrights.org/Article.aspx?id=367


Based on the recommendation of a dermatologist, who also happens to serve on the board of directors of a group that opposes lead ammunition, North Dakota is discarding between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds of venison that was intended to reach Americans who don’t have enough to eat.

The North Dakota Department of Health sent a letter to state food banks last week advising them to dispose of that meat after dermatologist William Cornatzer of Bismarck, N.D., supposedly found the presence of lead in ground venison donated by hunters. Officials in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin responded by halting the distribution of venison at food banks in their states pending tests for lead.

“At this time, we do not know if lead particles in wild game are a significant health issue in North Dakota, but because of the seriousness of lead poisoning, especially for children and pregnant women, we are taking precautionary measures by recommending that food pantries not distribute the ground venison remaining in their possession,” Sandi Washek, Lead Program coordinator for the North Dakota Department of Health, said in a statement.

Of the 17,000 pounds of venison donated by hunters in North Dakota this season, approximately 12,000 pounds had already been distributed to the needy prior to the health department’s advisory.

The move comes at a time when U.S. Department of Agriculture contributions to food banks nationwide have been severely cut back, making hunter-donated meat even more critical.

Cornatzer, who asserts that he is a hunter, says he found that 53 of 95 packages of hunter-donated deer meat collected from North Dakota food pantries contained lead dust that he attributed to lead bullets from centerfire rifles fragmenting on impact. He recommended that hunters use copper ammunition as an alternative to lead--even though copper ammunition is more expensive and cannot be found in every caliber.

“The North Dakota Health Department’s actions were reckless and have caused unnecessary fear to spread across the hunting community,” said Darren LaSorte, NRA-ILA’s Manager of Hunting Policy. “The doctor who brought this issue to the department’s attention is a national board member of the Peregrine Fund, one of the groups advocating a national ban on the use of lead ammunition. He can hardly be seen as an objective source of information and the department should have taken this fact into account well before it took any public action. It is no coincidence that the Peregrine Fund is hosting its national forum on the supposed impacts of lead ammunition on wildlife and humans in Idaho in about a month. The department played right into the Fund’s hand by creating a major media story.”

Others expressed similar skepticism about the possibility of meat contamination from lead ammunition.

“There’s been some work on (lead) levels with secondary consumption by bald eagles in gut piles, but we don’t eat gut piles,” said Lou Cornicelli, big game program coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, in the Grand Forks Herald. “I’ve never seen anything done on human health or muscle meat for human consumption.”

The head of Wisconsin’s venison donation program, Laurie Fike, told the Minneapolis Star-Triune, “I thought it was preposterous that a bullet would leave that much residue. My feeling is the lead got in there some other way. I have a lot of questions.”

Indeed, it should be noted that game harvested through traditional methods, including with lead ammunition, has fed millions of Americans without incident for more than a century. Of that number, thousands of needy people receive high-protein meals each year thanks to the generosity of hunters.

A short sampling of states that participate in these game sharing programs shows just how large an impact they have when it comes to combating hunger. For example, Wisconsin hunters donated 414,000 pounds of venison in 2007 alone, and Virginia hunters set a record last year by donating more than 363,000 pounds of deer meat. And those are just a few of the larger totals. Game sharing programs channel food to the less fortunate in communities nationwide. The meat that is collected is subject to strict health regulations and, in most instances, must be processed by a professional butcher.

Now, based on a single “study” conducted by a dermatologist, thousands of pounds of meat won’t make it into the hands of those who need it most, just because it was taken with traditional ammunition.

“Whether the meat samples from food banks in North Dakota really contained lead is something that should be confirmed by independent studies,” said LaSorte. “However, even if there are small particles of lead in the meat, there is simply no science to justify the department’s directive to dispose of donated venison. Why did it not simply ask the food banks to keep from serving the venison until further information regarding the matter could be gathered? Now it might prove difficult to find meat in food banks so that a truly independent study of meat can be conducted. The citizens of North Dakota deserve better from their state government.”

NRA is committed to the success of Hunters for the Hungry and other game sharing programs through both logistical and financial support. In 2007 alone, The NRA Foundation donated $26,183 to help defray the operating costs of these programs. To make a donation to a game sharing program in your area, please visit NRA’s Hunters for the Hungry Information Clearinghouse at www.nrahq.org/hunting/hungry_nat_list.asp.

[Tim Nunan]

Since the antihunting groups have been successfull in California getting lead shot banned for hunting on state land one has to wonder if this is just another attack trying to use consumer safety as the excuse.

Would be interesting to know if the dermatologist William Cornatzer is a H$U$/Peta supporter.