Larry, the Audobon Society has been in support of California's AB 711 lead ammunition ban. Here is a rebuttal to their allegations made by Hunt For Truth:
http://www.ammoland.com/2013/05/rebuttal...on-ban-in-cali/It is not surprising that some factions within Audobon may be supportive of hunting while others may not. Just look at the number of guys right here who support anti-gun politicians.
The WI DNR study you talk about in your first paragraph above appears to have absolutely excluded lead shot as the source for lead in the systems of woodcock, but still refuses to make that determination when it is almost certain that lead from other sources was concentrated in the worms they eat... not from sticking their beaks in the soil. As far as I know, worms do not eat lead shot, but there is still plenty of tetraethyl lead dust in our soils from decades of burning leaded gasoline. Lead isotope analysis can seldom identify the exact source of lead because lead smelters supplied lead from the same mines to many end users of lead.
I do understand that lead lodged in bodies is different than ingested lead, and made that distinction in my prior post. I also mentioned that ingested lead, although more bio-active due to contact with digestive acid, is also typically excreted long before enough is dissolved to cause lead poisoning. I'm not the least bit confused about that.
The North Dakota study you cited on increased lead levels in people who ate wild game was mostly due to venison consumption where bullet fragments far from the wound channel ended up in ground meat... not from lead shot. And it could not be determined that those wild game eaters who had higher than normal lead levels did not get that lead exposure from other sources of lead besides bullet fragments.
I am absolutely not in denial that lead can be a toxin. But there are a multitude of much more threatening environmental toxins that are a far greater threat to humans and animals. Your last sentence in your post above says it all... "We need to force them to come up with better evidence than that."
