California Condor Lead Protection

There is a bill on Arnold's desk to ban the use of lead shot while hunting in California. Lead shot has been shown to be detrimental to scavengers including the Bald Eagle and the California Condor. An endangered California Condor died last month at the LA Zoo while undergoing treatment for lead poisoning.

Tests showed the bird had 10 times the safe amount of lead in its bloodstream after it was caught in central California last month. Only about 300 California condors remain in the world.

Meanwhile private areas such as the Tejon Ranch in Kern county have gone ahead and imposed self-regulatory bans.

Efforts to conserve the California condor got a huge boost last week from the Tejon Ranch Company, California's largest private landowner and operator of the state's largest private hunting program.

The Tejon Ranch Company announced that it will discontinue the use of lead ammunition on its 270,000 acre privately-owned ranch which is located in the heart of condor country in southern California's Kern County. The lead-free ammunition requirement will apply to any hunting on Tejon Ranch after January 1, 2008, and apply to the more than 1,800 hunters that come to the ranch each year to hunt deer, elk, antelope, wild pigs, wild turkey and other game.

Take action!

Please call the governor right away today at (916) 445-2841 and urge him to sign A.B. 821 into law and protect the California condor.

Calling the governor's office is easy. If you press (1) for English, you can then press (2) to "voice your opinion on an Assembly bill." Finally, press (0) to speak with a representative staff member. Simply tell the staff member that you want Governor Schwarzenenegger to sign A.B. 821 into law to protect California condors.

Photo by Flickr user ekai used under a Creative Commons license.

UPDATE: Word on the street was that the Govenor was planning on vetoing this bill, but he did in fact sign it yesterday. Congrats to the people powered conservation movement in California that was able to beat the gun lobby and the NRA.