Tom Gogola reports in the Times Union that Dave LoVerde of the Friends of the Feathered and Furry Wildlife Center in Hunter wants hunters to switch to non-lead bullets and shells. The Department of Environmental Protection recently found a bald eagle with lead poisoning near the Cannonsville Reservoir dam in Delaware County. “I tested it for lead levels and the levels were off the chart,” says LoVerde, whose animal-rescue organization, founded by his late wife, Missy Runyan, has treated numerous birds of prey for lead poisoning. The American Bird Conservancy agrees it is a problem, estimating that 16 million birds a year are poisoned by lead. The birds feast on fish, waterfowl, or animal carcasses with lead fragments or pellets from hunters’ bullets and shotgun shells. LoVerde guesses this bald eagle may have fed on lead-peppered entrails left by a hunter after field-dressing an animal, or on a carcass left by state wildlife agents after killing a deer or other wounded animal. The eagle died two hours after the test, and on an X-ray the next day “you could see the specks of lead in his digestive tract.” LoVerde wants hunters and law enforcement agencies to switch from lead ammunition to copper or other metal and metal alloys that don’t have the same health impacts on animals. California already phased out the use of lead ammunition in 2019 and Rep. Ted Lieu from California introduced a bill in Congress in 2020 that would ban lead ammunition from U.S. Fish & Wildlife lands. A bill from Democratic Assemblywoman Deborah Glick in New York did not proceed to a law this year. Bill Conners, a Hudson Valley hunter and fisher, chair of the New York State Fish and Wildlife Management Board, and Legislative Vice President at the Federation of Dutchess County Fish & Game Clubs, says a switch is possible. “The bottom line for me is – I could support legislation that eventually limits the use of traditional lead ammo,” said Conners. Read more about this story in the Times Union.