Rookhawk, I realize there's a problem with eagles dying from ingesting lead. That being said, have you looked at the statistics on eagles since the ban on lead for waterfowl and the elimination of DDT? Eagles have made a miraculous recovery and, as a species--unlike the condor--are doing just fine.
Raptor rehabilitators will tell you about the sick eagles they've had to deal with. But game managers have to focus on the welfare of SPECIES, not on the welfare of individual animals or birds. (If we were to start focusing on the welfare of individual animals and birds . . . well, that would be the end of hunting.) If overall eagle numbers are not declining--and there are far more bald eagles now than there were before lead shot was banned for waterfowl and before DDT was banned--then we're not dealing with a serious problem. Sure, varmint hunters can probably save an eagle here or there by picking up dead prairie dogs, but that isn't going to save all the eagles. I come from Iowa, where we don't have any large scale varmint hunting, and the raptor rehabilitators still report eagles with lead poisoning. Some of them likely get it from wounded deer that run off and die, and are then fed upon by eagles. Maybe the occasional pheasant as well. There's really no way to solve that, other than going to nontoxic bullets and slugs for deer and other big game, and nontoxic shot for upland game. But that switch would have a significantly negative impact on hunting, unless nontoxic bullets and shot as effective as lead and as cheap were available.
