being born and raised in the wonderful state of North Dakota, i full fill the cliche of being a redneck and an avid hunter and fisherman. most of my friends share these values with me and every single one of us is proud of it! i am also a firm believer in eating what i kill. my father raised me to take only what i can eat or use, nothing goes to waste. Last year, early December, a study was done to determine the amounts of lead found in venison (deer meat) after it had been killed with high power rifles firing lead bullets. this study found that 5.3% of deer meat tested had trace amounts of lead even after it had been processed into the final product. i wasn't at all shocked when i read about this study. the only reaction i had was to what was going to happen North Dakota's hunting traditions when radicals get ahold of this information? i may be thinking rash but who is to say that there isn't someone out there just looking for a reason to ban hunting? this study could be the basis to someones argument against hunting. the link above isn't some "radical" person ranting about the cons of hunting, it is just an article warning consumers not to eat venison.
From personal experience, i have been eating this stuff since i was able to eat solid foods, and i am just fine! now i know what you may be saying to yourself, "how does he know that he doesn't have high levels of lead in his blood system?" because i have the proof! when venison was found to contain lead from lead bullets i took the initiative to have my blood tested for lead at the local clinic. at the clinic i filled out a questionnaire asking about my average intake of wild game taken by lead bullets. this included deer meat and upland game (pheasants, grouse, partridge, and dove) all of which are commonly taken with lead shot from shotguns. studies haven't been done to confirm, but it is believed that because shotgun pellets are so small, they could be easily ingested. back to my results. i received a letter in the mail about 3 months after my blood test with my results. now it was a long time ago that i read these results so the exacts numbers are fuzzy in my memory, the letter said that more than 10 µg/dL (micrograms/ deciliter) of lead in the bloodstream was dangerous. my results showed that i had approximately 0.25 µg/dL of lead in my bloodstream, far below the dangerous levels.
so there ya have it! no need to worry bout that the lead that may or may not be found in the wild game you got sittin in your freezer. now obviously the amount of lead is mostly dependant on the way your meat is processed. avoiding bloodshot meat and areas of meat located near a bone shattered by a bullet fragment will greatly reduce the amount of lead that ultimately finds it way into your system. North Dakota's Game and Fish department has an extensive PR department that deals with issues like this on a regular basis so i feel that my heritage as a North Dakota hunter is safe for now.
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I have been eating wild game all of my life as well. I found your blog very interesting. I think that the PR for the Game and Fish Department should put out a campaign on how people have been eating wild game for decades and not getting sick. If the PR department makes it clear to the public that there isn't a significant problem with the meat because of the lead in bullets hopefully there won't be a battle. There are always going to be people that are agianst hunting animals, but this lead issue does not need to be a reason to stop hunting. People have known about lead in meat from hunting for a long time and it hasn't stopped them from feeding it to thier families. Like you siad steps are already taken to reduce the amount that gets into our system. Hopefully we don't have to deal with laws trying to be passed because of this in the future and I think PR can really help prevent that.
ReplyDeleteAlong with Erica and you I have also been eating wild game and hunting wild life my whole life. I can honestly say I never heard the stats on the lead shots with hunting. I have heard many people say stuff about the lead shot with hunting birds whether it be water fowl or other bird game but never about hunting deer. This season I didnt use lead based shells, but rather I used metal hallow points, and I must say that I enjoy seeing my deer drop after only one shot versus a one shot and wait for the deer to die. Now knowing that I will always use the metal hallow point while deer hunting.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the other two I have ate wild game my entire life and honestly there are days when i would prefer to eat that over anything else. I have never heard of this before and there are many of my family members who are avid hunters and they too have never heard about this.
ReplyDeleteI know many people who prefer not to eat wild game because of reasons like this or ones that are very similar. I just say to them no one has ever died because of anything like this yet do i doubt it is going to kill you just by trying it. Then again there are many people who dont eat it because they done agree with killing wild game.
I also agree with Erica that precautions are already being taken to reduce what is being put into our systems. And I also think something there are much worse things that we might be putting into our bodies but we just dont know how bad they really are for us.
Good Post Dan that was very interesting to read and I also passed that info on to my family members who are hunters as well.
I know this was a big issue last year. There were a lot of people that got donated deer meat or like soup kitchens that get venison to feed the homeless or poor. They had to throw all of the meat away because some idot had to do a check to see if you could get lead posioning from eating it and convicned them that you can. I think its crap and very minimal
ReplyDeleteI know there were places in ND that usually take donated meat and they didnt get it last year and were upset.