No lead in your pencil - it's all in the birds!

No lead in your pencil?  It's all in game shot by people having fun, and using lead shot. Lead is a highly toxic poison, which testing consistently shows is present in many game bird products in shops and large supermarkets in the UK. It's also estimated that 100,000 water birds die each year of lead poisoning after ingesting lead left in the environment. Each shotgun cartridge used for game can have as many as 250 lead pellets, these are being scattered across the land and water courses. Visit WILD JUSTICE and sign up for their infrequent but interesting email updates on the great work they are doing to bring about regulation, not only in the shooting community, but challenging the governments in the UK to uphold their own laws and to get rid of antiquated systems brought in without any scientific basis. The latest email is reproduced below. WILD JUSTICE on the web sign up here Whooper Swan with lead poisoning, click here "Good morning!  A week ago we told you that we were expecting news about lead levels in game meat, our challenge of the Northern Ireland general licences and our challenge of burning on blanket bogs. There was progress on all of those issues last week and we expect more progress and news this week too.   Countryfile on lead in game meat: did you watch Countryfile yesterday evening and its coverage of the lead in game meat issue? It wasn't bad and you can catch up on iPlayer - click here.   Countryfile covered many of the issues - lead is a poison, it harms human health, the Food Standards Agency warns against eating lead especially if you are pregnant, trying for a baby or a young child, lead in the environment kills waterfowl who ingest it accidentally, non-toxic ammunition is available and widely used elsewhere in the world, government has failed to set maximum lead levels for game meat although they exist for other meats and foods etc etc.   In response, Liam Stokes, ex Countryside Alliance and current CEO of British Game 'Assurance' said that we are 18 months into a five-year voluntary phasing out of lead ammunition and failed to mention a report to government over six years ago that recommended a phasing out of lead ammunition back then. When asked whether it was good enough to take years to phase out a harmful poison Mr Stokes said that lead was 'ballistically perfect' which seems to indicate where the industry's priorities lie and ignores the fact that other countries have done away with lead ammunition already. When the CEO of the Game 'Assurance' scheme was asked why the overriding concern was not the health of consumers, rather than the convenience of shooters, Mr Stokes relied on the fact that an obscure government agency website has food warnings about lead - it's a shocking abrogation of responsibility by the Game 'Assurance' outfit. The industry is in a morally bankrupt position - selling game as healthy when it contains high levels of a poison, as our analysis of game meat last year (click here) and again this year (click here) have shown.   It was good to see and hear Professor Mark Taggart from the University of the Highlands and Islands talking about his analyses. It is Prof. Taggart and his team who have analysed the game meat samples that Wild Justice has collected.   Countryfile said 'From this year, high street chains like Waitrose have said they are taking lead-shot game off the shelves' although actually Waitrose said that they would be lead-free by last year. Wild Justice testing of game meat showed that they weren't and later this week we should be in a position to tell you whether Waitrose and another high-profile high street store are selling lead-free or lead-contaminated game meat to the public. You'll get those results first through this newsletter.     Northern Ireland general licences: we shall press the Northern Ireland authorities for more information on the replacement of their three general licences. The three unlawful general licences are still listed on the DAERA website and we are unaware of any public statement by DAERA despite their concession letter to Wild Justice last week.       DEFRA's burning regulations: we have challenged the DEFRA regulations on burning vegetation on blanket bogs in England. We think the regulations are feeble and don't go anywhere near far enough. Also, it is unclear on what basis DEFRA ministers made their decisions to adopt such poor measures.   But we haven't got very far with this challenge so far. We have sought permission for judicial review of the regulations and been turned down. We appealed that decision, or sought renewal of that claim, and were turned down again. Is that it?  No, we have decided after discussion with our legal team, to have one more attempt to take this important issue to court and for a judge to review DEFRA's actions.   Wild Justice has decided to go to the Court of Appeal over the refusal of Justice Lang to grant our renewal application for judicial review of the DEFRA burning regulations. We did not feel that the judgment we received the week before last was well-reasoned. This isn't because we are bad losers but because we came away feeling that the arguments put forward very clearly and ably by our legal team had not been heard or properly addressed. Under those circumstances it is difficult just to walk away - the protection of blanket bogs and the climate are too important for that. So, the challenge goes on.       By subscribing to this free newsletter you get the Wild Justice news first. We're very happy for you to forward these newsletters to friends who might be interested in hearing our news. Anyone can subscribe, free of charge, to our newsletter through our website (and if you find it isn't to your taste then there is an unsubscribe option at the foot of every newsletter).   Thank you!  We'll be back with more news later this week.   Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay)."