Is that deer you shot to eat going to kill you?

An eagle that Eva Cameron of Cedar Falls, Iowa discovered on December 26, 2009 died on the 30th despite her efforts to save its life. Cedar Falls is in Black Hawk County, Iowa where the Black Hawk Wildlife Rehabilitation Project is located. They took the eagle but were unable to do much to save its life. After all lead is poisonous to humans and to eagles. This little bit of news got me thinking about my friends Todd and Kris. Todd is an avid hunter and together they put on the annual wild game barbeque at their home. But this story made me wonder if we are all doing something we need to reconsider. Is eating wild game shot with lead buck shot a good idea?

“Despite Evans' efforts to save the eagle, it died Dec. 30. Test results found lead levels of 5.6 parts per million in the raptor's blood. Toxicity occurs at 0.2 parts per million.” Sioux City Journal An interesting fact reported by Kay Neumann of the Saving Our Avian Resources in Dedham is that since 2004 that organization has experience with 130 eagles that died of which sixty percent tested positive for lead poisoning. Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier So I began to wonder about just how hard is it to see all the lead shot in game you shoot, cook and eat? Well, look at the x-rays shown in this video clip.

I’m going to run a series this week on lead in game meat intended for you or your family to eat. Let’s start with this video from YouTube that describes the issue.