I saw this on a couple of other sites and thought I would post it here for any comments ya'll might happen to have ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080329/ap_on_.../venison_lead_2


BISMARCK, N.D. - Thousands of pounds of venison donated to food pantries this year has become a contentious gift in three states.

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Officials in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa warn that the meat could be contaminated by lead from bullets. Hunting groups are calling it an overreaction.

"It's alarmist and not supported by any science," said Lawrence Keane, a vice president and lawyer for the Newton, Conn.-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. "High quality protein is now taken out of the mouths of needy, hungry people."

North Dakota health officials on Wednesday told food pantries in the state to throw out donated venison, saying it may have lead fragments. Officials in Minnesota and Iowa followed with similar alerts, asking that venison in those states not be distributed.

Gov. John Hoeven said the alerts were issued as a precaution. He said the state has a "tremendous working relationship" with hunters, and the questions raised about venison are new.

Safari Club International's Sportsmen Against Hunger program donated 317,000 pounds of venison last year to the needy, said Doug Burdin, a lawyer for the Tucson, Ariz.-based group. The meat donated by hunters was enough for more than 1.2 million meals, he said.

"It's provided a lot of free meals to a lot of people," Burdin said. "Hunters are doing something they love and helping others at the same time. This is disheartening, and we certainly don't think this program should come to an end on the unscientific assessment that has occurred here."

Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and hunter, alerted health officials after he conducted his own tests on venison using a CT scanner and found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples. The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the results on at least five samples of venison destined for food pantries.

"This isn't just a food pantry problem. This is a nationwide problem," Cornatzer said Friday.

Hunters have alternatives to lead, he said. "I'm a big hunter. I've already purchased four boxes of copper bullets to next year," Cornatzer said.

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, executive director Ann 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.

The state has about 45 food pantries, and surveys have shown a need for more than 70,000 pounds of venison annually, Poller said. She hopes people will donate other types of meat.

"Meat is so expensive," she said. "This is going to have an impact — it's a quality, lean meat protein source that we're losing."

Jason Foss, president of Minot-based Pheasants for the Future, said hunters from his group donated about 100 deer this year to the program. He believes the issue of lead-contaminated meat is "a little extreme at this point."

"Sportsmen have been shooting deer for hundreds of years with lead bullets with no problems," he said. "I hope this program keeps rolling along because so much good comes out of it."

My personal take is this article has a definate P E T A "smell" about it. It's quite odd that they happen to single out Deer meat and don't really discuss any other game.

Besides, unless you happen to be partial to "Texas Heart Shots" or don't discard the meat around the shot area and then toss it in with the burger meat, I have a hard time believing how most of a Deer could become "contaminated" !!


99er

I gotta agree with you about that "peta stench" 99er..... People have eaten deer killed with bullets for an awful long time now...and I honestly believe that 99.9999999% of the hungry people are not going to ask...or care... what that steak or burger was killed with.... When the anti's political rhetoric and extremeism gets to the point of preferring to see people go hungry than eat something harvested with a firearm, that is wa-a-a-ay over the top, bringing them to the exalted position of "Arse-Hole", in my estimation.

I just think it's kinda dumb. Okay, IF, it is proven to really be contaminating to us...then yeah. But, I think they're going on a "maybe", and people have been eating said deer for many a moon and no one has had any life altering side effects as far as I know. Don't most folks cut around the bloody pulp resulting from the wound anyway...

It's a good program, and to throw stink on it is asinine.

I'll bet if they checked those "samples" a little closer they would find that every single one of them was blood shot. Of course they also probably don't have any samples from a deer shoot with bow and arrow.

Sounds like someone is wanting to push the lead free bullet issue to a new level.

Yep, agreed