Well that's really smart, what about all the people who can't kill a deer or don't have anywhere to hunt? Lot's of people like to eat deer meat but just don't hunt.

If the homeless in North Dakota are so scared of meat that I would feed my own family then let them starve.

Started with watefowl, moved onto no lead in most of California, other states are attempting to follow suit, a now a government is telling food pantries not to serve food that millions of other eat. And we sit by, and let this all happen.

Don't MF the homeless of North Dakota, I'm sure they're grateful for the venison, not matter how it was killed.

~Michael

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has issued an advisory to not eat three species of ducks: Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler and Common Goldeneye. They have been found to have concentrations of mercury that are above what is considered safe.

There is also an advisory not to eat trout from my favorite flyfishing stream for the same reason. I don't mind that so much because I'd rather catch the trout again than eat 'em anyway.

It seems we are downwind of too many coal fired power plants and gold mining operations. I, for one, appreciate the advice because it gives me the choice to avoid the hazards of consuming heavy metals or not.

Doug DeVries

Since I was born without a gizzard for grinding up food along with gravel, I have never been concerned about eating wild game that I harvest myself. The occasional lead pellets that I might have eaten have long since passed.

Lets say that the use of lead containing projectiles is banned for big game hunting.... well there is the Barnes X which currently outperforms most other designs and of course necessity is the mother of invention.

I wouldn't throw the towel in yet.

Firearms Industry Statement on Results of CDC Blood Lead Levels in Hunters Study

NEWTOWN, Conn., Nov 05, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) - the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry - issued the following statement in response to study results from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), released by the North Dakota Department of Health, showing no evidence that lead or "traditional" ammunition pose any health risk to those who consume game harvested meat.

The CDC report on human lead levels of hunters in North Dakota has confirmed what hunters throughout the world have known for hundreds of years, that traditional ammunition poses no health risk to people and that the call to ban lead ammunition was nothing more than a scare tactic being pushed by anti-hunting groups.

As noted in a media advisory released by the North Dakota Department of Health, the highest lead level reading of an adult study participant was still below the CDC accepted lead level threshold for that of a child, and significantly lower than the CDC accepted lead level threshold for that of an adult. Furthermore, during a tele-press conference hosted by the ND Department of Health, officials stated they could not verify whether this adult even consumed game harvested with traditional ammunition. Correspondingly, the study only showed an insignificant 0.3 micrograms per deciliter difference between participants who ate wild game harvested with traditional ammunition and non-hunters in the control group.

Also demonstrating their understanding that game harvested with traditional ammunition is safe to consume, the ND Department of Health, following the release of the CDC study results, encouraged hunters to continue donating venison to local food banks as long as processing guidelines were adhered to. For more than a century, hundreds of millions of Americans have safely consumed game harvested using traditional hunting ammunition, and despite there being no scientific evidence that consuming the game is endangering the health of individuals, anti-hunting interest groups are continuing to press state legislatures around the country to support a ban on this common ammunition.

These politically driven groups understand that while an outright ban on hunting would be nearly impossible to achieve, dismantling the culture of hunting one step at a time is a realistic goal. Banning lead ammunition is the first step of this larger political mission. We can only hope that with the conclusive CDC results concerning the safety of traditional ammunition, legislatures across the country will listen to science and not anti-hunting radicals.

The NSSF is pleased that hunters and others can now comfortably return to consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition that has been properly field dressed and butchered, yet we remain unsettled that for so many months good and safe food was taken out of the mouths of the hungry as nothing more than a political gambit by special interest groups. SOURCE National Shooting Sports Foundation

I'm sure this study is the reason for the ND decision.

A friend sent this to me a couple of weeks ago.

Well I've about had it with food pantries anyway. Let em go hunt or tell em to get a job and go buy their food. I plant a large garden every year and I have more produce than my family and friends can use. My church has a food pantry that is open to the public, so I donate the excess produce to them. You should see some of the people who come in there. New cars, jewlery, latest cell phones, etc... They drive better vehicles than I do, and I'm the one donating?? They are in nice clothes while I'm in dirty work clothes from picking the veggies. Do any of em every says thanks. Hell no. People working the food pantry have been cussed at because some of the items in the store are plain label or store label and not name brand stuff.

Why donate anything, anymore? Obama is going to give em everything they need for free from now on out.

Fine, then let them eat healthier rotting food from garbage cans. Sheesh.

This may be a dumb question, but once the meat has been processed by the butcher, how will they know how it was killed?