Stan - sorry, I tend to run on sometimes; my life has revolved around lions and Furadan for too long. And I worked on organochlorines in African raptors at the beginning of my career, so know a bit about that history, too. A historical note closer to home: George W.'s last act in office was to pardon a guy convicted of poisoning bald eagles with Furadan.
Of course people who use things responsibly (like guns) should not be penalized for the criminals who don't. Sorry to bring this back to Africa, but where there is no law enforcement, in practice there is no way to control people's behavior. The only way to stop wildlife poisoning in Africa would be to get rid of carbofuran entirely. Organophosphate arachnicides (tick dip) and strychnine used to be the predator poisons of choice, but those are no longer available. Then in the late 1990's people discovered how cheap and effective Furadan was and predator numbers plummeted -its a helluva lot easier to kill off all the predators as we did than to keep your cattle corralled at night, as was done for ten thousand years.
Craig, if you look at the papers in that symposium sponsored by the Peregrine Fund, you will see that the authors were based at respectable government agencies and academic institutions, not PETA. The Peregrine Fund is concerned about eagles and condors, many of which die every year from lead in scavenged carcasses. Lead shot does not fall into the simple categories of proper/improper use - when birds eat it, they die. California has (so far) exempted quail and doves from the lead shot ban, presumably because they are not very likely to be eaten by condors, but there certainly doesn't seem a good rationale to ban lead for turkeys. What can I say? Its California.
