Lead found in donated venison

By Larry S. Moore

According to a Minneapolis Star-Tribune story, Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and hunter, alerted health officials after he conducted tests on venison using a CT scanner and found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples. The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the results on at least five samples of venison destined for food pantries and told food pantries in the state to throw out donated venison. Officials in Minnesota and Iowa followed with similar alerts, asking that venison in those states not be distributed.

This story is concerning, but the tone and purpose is a total outrage. Yes, as a hunter and someone who has donated venison to local food banks, I am outraged. There are so many ways this lead could have ended up throughout the meat. However, taking it to a national level is simply the anti-hunters (or anti-gunners since their behavior pattern is the same) using another unfortunate situation to attack hunting. This is another attempt at hysteria by animal rights groups who have not been able to ban lead or hunting in any other attempts and so are attacking this area.

The possibility of lead in meat occurs anytime game is killed with a firearm. I’ve been fortunate over the last twenty years to kill a number of deer. I’ve used bow, shotgun, muzzleloader, handgun and centerfire rifles in both Ohio and Kentucky for deer hunting. I have taken deer with pumpkin ball slugs, sabot slugs, muzzleloading round ball, muzzzleloaders with sabot bullets, handgun with Hornady XTP bullets and several calibers of rifle.

Traditional slugs don't normally fragment as they tend to just deform. However, a small bit of lead does shave off on various bones especially if the slug passes through a major shoulder bone. I am speaking of older style Foster slugs, such as Remington Sluggers, here and also on the Brenneke style slugs like I use. Newer sabot slugs such as Federal Hydra-Shocks, Remington sabots and even the Hornady XTP that I use in my .44 mag and in the muzzleloaders with sabots can fragment. Depends on the shot and what they travel through. Once they mushroom lead is exposed. Quite frankly the copper jackets and/or plastic tips have also come off in various bullets I've used. I don't want to eat copper or plastic with my venison either.

This is one reason I butcher my venison. The other is that we believe butchering is the final part of the hunting experience. I know how the wound area was cleaned. I've found more bone fragments in commercially butchered venison than anything else. If you use a processor, know that processor and the kind of time they take in cleaning meat.

I've killed and eaten thousands of rabbits and hundreds of pheasants over my life time. All were killed with lead shot. I have no doubt ingested some lead. You find almost all of it. I hate biting down on a piece of lead - it hurts. I reload several thousand shot shells per year. I have lead and liver scans done. I am clean. Also keep in mind that I grew up in the 1950s when all the schools and playground equipment was painted with lead based paints.

However saying that the lead sprays through "a large part of the animal" is total nonsense. I've butchered or help butcher an average of 13 deer per year for the last 10 years. We butcher what we kill and eat what we butcher. I have a commercial sized grinder. We have yet to find any lead in our meat.

Certainly some shots go through meat. Most shots only go through the rib cage and into the vital heart/lung area. Ribs on deer have very little meat. I put the heart into my burger meat. I don't know of anyone that eats the lungs. We liberally cut away any damaged areas both to remove the shocked areas where blood has collected and to avoid any bullet or jacket fragments.

The photo an Associated Press article clearly shows lead scattered throughout the meat. Quite frankly, this appears more like the lead has been run through a grinder and mixed into the meat than anything I’ve ever seen resembling a wound channel in a deer. It may simply be carelessness during the butchering process.

Knowing some of the stunts that groups like PETA have pulled in the past (not to mention killing and dumping of pets), I wouldn’t put it past them to have “salted” this meat with the lead.

Their result is that all donated venison will be suspect and viewed with suspicion. The hysterical claims in these articles may very well take prime low cholesterol meat away from the needy and low income families that often find meat an almost expensive luxury in the grocery store.

Outdoor writer and hunter education instructor Larry S. Moore is a long-time volunteer leader for Buckeye Firearms Association and winner of the 2005 USSA Patriot Award and 2007 League of Ohio Sportsmen/Ohio Wildlife Federation Hunter Educator of the Year.