Get the lead out
Re “Fish & Game officer leaves post,” Sept. 14
Republican lawmakers and a consortium of hunting organizations forced the resignation of former California Fish and Game Commissioner R. Judd Hanna because of his stand against the use of lead bullets, which scientists have found to be a leading killer of the California condor, an endangered species with perhaps only 129 individuals left in the wild.
In calling for Hanna’s dismissal, hunting organizations argued that banning lead ammunition could result in a decline of big-game hunting in California, implying that hunters are unable or unwilling to use anything else.
Hunting organizations that support using lead ammunition within the habitat of critically endangered species are anti-wildlife, anti-environment and supportive only of the status quo. Hunters have already pushed the passenger pigeon into extinction. We urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to ban the use of lead ammunition in the California condor habitat before hunters do the same to the condor.
Joe Miele
Vice President
Wildlife Watch
New Paltz, N.Y.
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