No gun shot deer accepted

[koginam]

It seems some people believe its better to go hungry then eat a little lead.

FOXNews.com - North Dakota Charity Program to Accept Only Archery-Killed Venison - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

North Dakota Charity Program to Accept Only Archery-Killed Venison

BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota program that distributes venison to the needy will accept only deer killed with arrows, fearing that firearm-shot meat may contain lead fragments.

"We're calling out to bow hunters to spend a little more time in the tree stand," said Ann Pollert, executive director of the North Dakota Community Action Partnership, which administers the Sportsmen Against Hunger Program.

Officials in North Dakota and other states have warned about eating venison killed with lead ammunition since the spring, when a physician conducting tests using a CT scanner found lead in samples of donated deer meat.

The findings led North Dakota's health department to order food pantries to throw out donated venison. Some groups that organize venison donations have called such actions premature and unsupported by science.

The North Dakota Community Action Partnership distributed 17,000 pounds of venison from 381 donated deer after last year's hunting season, a number that has tripled since the program began in North Dakota in 2004, Pollert said. At least 4,000 pounds of venison were in food pantries in the state when the health department issued its warning, she said.

Pollert said her group had been waiting on findings from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been studying potential health risks for people who eat venison killed with high-velocity ammunition.
The results of the federal study were expected last month but have been delayed. North Dakota's deer season opens Friday.

"We had to make a decision," Pollert said.

A draft report has been completed but it has not been released.

 

[MagMan]

BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota program that distributes venison to the needy will accept only deer killed with arrows, fearing that firearm-shot meat may contain lead fragments.

No doubt this is the craziest thing I've ever herd. I'm surprised they don't want you to pay to have it processed and packaged. I'm all for feeding the hungry but this is a slap in the face, picky bastards.

 

[bigg_sexy1]

That is absolutely crazy, I think hunting for charity programs are great. First and foremost it helps needy families, and puts a much needed good word into the public for hunting. They have a hunting for charity program here in Alberta that I will be taking part in.

 

[bigg_sexy1]

I also believe that most hunter take a grea deal of pride in what they are doing and will not take in an animal that they would not eat themselves. I wonder if the people that recieve the meat were consulted before that decision was made?

 

[MagMan]

I shoot plenty of deer for other people...is there something wrong with that?

I'll eat 1 or 2 deer per year but yet I'll shoot 5 or 6. We have an ridiculous amount of does and if I don't shoot them they will hit your car.

Oh wait maybe I should have put that second sentence in another post instead of hitting the edit button. all in good fun my friend.

No doubt this will be a fight to the end.

 

[bigg_sexy1]

I'm glad that you participate in giving meat to others I'm sure that they appreciate it.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I shoot plenty of deer for other people...is there something wrong with that?
I'll eat 1 or 2 deer per year but yet I'll shoot 5 or 6. We have an ridiculous amount of does and if I don't shoot them they will hit your car.
Oh wait maybe I should have put that second sentence in another post instead of hitting the edit button. all in good fun my friend.
No doubt this will be a fight to the end.

Maybe you're on to something. Deer killed by cars may have steel frags but you won't get lead poisoning.

 

[MagMan]

Out of the 30+ does I seen last night 3 of them were walking on 3 legs. I suspect they were hit by cars. I will put those down on opening morning if I see them. I can't stand watching animals bobble around on three legs.

Granted it may be a waste of meat (if infected) but it makes me feel better.

 

[NYLES]

Thats about as dumb as some asking if you have cleeaned the extra fish your tryin to give away!

 

[Pdvdh]

Well I'm sure hunters would agree to using lead free bullets if the Charity organizations would feel any better about it. Barnes right? Nosler's got one too?

 

[blipelt]

I never read the whole post but this is my state and my home town so I thought I would let you know where this came from.

Dermatologist William Cornatzer announced that he found lead fragments in venison packages that HE ran through a ct scan he claims to be a lifelong hunter but in reality he is a board member of the Peregrine Foundation, a bird conservation group that supported the ban on lead bullets in Ca. The last time I heard something about this they weren't even sure if it was lead. This really irratated me when for the last couple of years I get two extra doe tags for this cause and to find out it was just thrown away. The CDC is doing it's own studies to see if there is any merit to the claims but until the results are in the rifle harvested deer will not be accepted.


Brent

 

[archdlx]

I stole this from a KANADIAN site....

Firearms Industry Statement on Results of
CDC Blood Lead Levels in Hunters Study

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry -- issued the following statement in response to study results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released by the North Dakota Department of Health, showing no evidence that lead or "traditional" ammunition pose any health risk to those who consume game harvested meat.

The CDC report on human lead levels of hunters in North Dakota has confirmed what hunters throughout the world have known for hundreds of years, that traditional ammunition poses no health risk to people and that the call to ban lead ammunition was nothing more than a scare tactic being pushed by anti-hunting groups.

In looking at the study results, the average lead level of the hunters tested was lower than that of the average American. In other words, if you were to randomly pick someone on the street, chances are they would have a higher blood lead level than the hunters in this study.

Also of note, the lead levels of children under 6 in the study had a mean of just 0.88, less than half the national average. Children over 6 had even lower lead levels. The CDC's level of concern for lead in children is 10.

A media advisory released by the North Dakota Department of Health cited the highest lead level reading of an adult study participant as still being lower than the CDC lead level threshold of concern for a child, and significantly lower than the CDC accepted threshold of concern for an adult. Furthermore, during a tele-press conference hosted by the ND Department of Health, officials stated they could not verify whether this adult even consumed game harvested with traditional ammunition. Correspondingly, the study only showed an insignificant 0.3 micrograms per deciliter difference between participants who ate wild game harvested with traditional ammunition and non-hunters in the non-random control group.

Also demonstrating their understanding that game harvested with traditional ammunition is safe to consume, the ND Department of Health, following the release of the CDC study results, encouraged hunters to continue donating venison to local food banks as long as processing guidelines were adhered to.

NSSF was critical of the ND Department of Health when earlier this year the Department overreacted to a non-peer reviewed study by a dermatologist who claimed to have collected packages of venison from food banks that contained lead fragments. North Dakota health officials did not conduct their own study, but merely accepted the lead-contaminated meat samples from the dermatologist. The ND Department of Health then ordered all food banks to discard their venison. Serious questions were raised in a subsequent investigative journalism piece published this summer about the scientific validity of the testing of venison samples from the ND food pantries, including concerns regarding the non-random selection of the samples.

It has since come to light that the dermatologist's efforts were not the independent actions of a concerned hunter, as he claimed. It was an orchestrated strategy by the Peregrine Fund -- an organization dedicated to eliminating the use of lead ammunition for hunting. The dermatologist serves on the Fund's Board of Directors.

For more than a century, hundreds of millions of Americans have safely consumed game harvested using traditional hunting ammunition, and despite there being no scientific evidence that consuming the game is endangering the health of individuals, special interest groups like the Peregrine Fund and anti-hunting groups are continuing to press state legislatures around the country to support a ban on this common, safe and effective ammunition.

These politically driven groups understand that while an outright ban on hunting would be nearly impossible to achieve, dismantling the culture of hunting one step at a time is a realistic goal. Banning lead ammunition is the first step of this larger political mission. We can only hope that with the conclusive CDC results concerning the safety of traditional ammunition, legislatures across the country will listen to science and not anti-hunting radicals.

The notion by some, that any amount of lead is a "concern," is scientifically unfounded rhetoric that runs contrary to nationwide, long-standing standards of evaluation. The NSSF is pleased that hunters and others can now comfortably continue consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition that has been properly field dressed and butchered, yet we remain unsettled that for so many months good and safe food was taken out of the mouths of the hungry as nothing more than a political gambit by special interest groups.

###

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[koginam]

archdlx
Thank you for the update.

 

[silvertip-co]

I knew them PETA Bowhunters would take over the world some time.