Condors

Your article (Jan. 5), “Breeding Condor Critically Ill From Poisoning by Lead,” provided additional evidence that California condors are not receiving the protection they require in their natural habitat from shooting and poisons.

The tragedy of yet one more bird suffering from lead poisoning, apparently from “eight pieces of lead in various parts of its body . . . seven of them (being) shotgun pellets,” could have been avoided.

Habitat protection is what public agencies that purport to protect wildlife are most reluctant to provide. This was evident when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game refused, in apparent violation of federal and state laws, to prepare the required environmental impact studies and environmental impact statements to comply with the National Environmental Quality Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, before proceeding with their efforts to breed the California condors in cages like chickens. The alternative of habitat protection was virtually ignored.

Legislators, both federal and state, are being asked to require that these public agencies prepare the required studies/reports before continuing their efforts to cage the remaining wild condors, that those condors removed from the wild be returned to their original habitat (without radios that may interfere with their breeding), and that immediate and effective measures be taken to protect their natural habitat, especially from shooting, poisons, and disturbance.

R.C. LEYLAND

Los Angeles