Lead shot making eagles sick, Iowa woman finds

HAWARDEN - It's a story Alex Lynott says she's written about on social media too many times over the past two weeks.

A sick bald eagle is spotted acting odd, then rescued, followed by a positive test for lead in its system.

Lynott, founder of HEART the Wild, has helped rescue four bald eagles in the northwest Iowa area over the past two weeks, three of which are suffering from lead poisoning.

Her organization, which rehabilitates wildlife, is permitted to temporarily care for the eagles and to transfer them to Saving Our Avian Resources (SOAR), a nonprofit raptor rehabilitation facility in Manning, in west central Iowa.

'I personally find it very strange that in such a small amount of time so many eagles from my area are showing up with lead,” she said.

The first eagle was found Feb. 13 in Hudson, S.D., followed by one found Feb. 21 near Doon, another found Feb. 22 near Remsen, and a fourth found Sunday Feb. 25 between Akron and Westfield.

Upon their arrival at SOAR, Lynott said the lead levels for two of the eagles measured too high to register on the machine, meaning they have an amount in their system that is often lethal.

A third eagle, which is suffering mainly from a damaged wing, had a low amount of lead in her system.

The fourth eagle had yet to be tested but also shows the signs of lead poisoning, Lynott said.

'I've seen it. It's got all the symptoms,” she said.

In each instance, Lynott said, passers-by noticed something was 'off” with the eagle, such as a lack of movement or inability to fly well. Eagles suffering from lead poisoning are often described as acting 'drunk.”

Lynott isn't certified to treat the eagles herself and, after one recovery, said she could only watch and offer water as the eagle lay in its crate, suffering from seizures and emitting distressed noises.

'The best I could do was put it in a crate and sit by it and just apologize over and over to him as he's shaking and shaking and making these awful sounds of pain and fear,” she said.

A Feb. 25 post on her personal Facebook page included a photo of the rescued eagle had more than 2,500 shares in two days. The post also called for a ban on lead ammunition.

Lynott said while she doesn't like getting wrapped up in politics, she wants to see a push for more research on lead poisoning in eagles and increased regulation of lead ammunition for hunting. Lead ammunition can spread throughout an animal's body when it is shot and may be ingested by eagles as they scavenge carcasses.

The U.S. banned the use of lead shot to hunt waterfowl in 1991 because of the harm to birds that ingest it but still allows lead ammunition for other types of hunting.

Lynott, who hunts herself, said options abound for alternate ammunition.

'Why we stop just with the waterfowl - I'm not sure why we should,” Lynott said. 'We're still dealing with this issue, just with a set of different birds and different habitats.”

Lynott said she has recently been contacted by people working for the Iowa Legislature who want to hear more about the issue and her experience.

'I never imagine myself getting political, but I seemed to have set a fire under a few people,” she said.

Bald eagles, which are growing in population, become more plentiful in Iowa in the winter, when those in Canada and northern states migrate south to find food, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. They begin arriving during September and become more numerous through January, depending on the winter's severity.

To prevent lead poisoning in eagles, the Iowa DNR recommends hunters select only non-toxic shot for small game shotgun hunting and non-toxic slugs or bullets for deer hunting, or recover and remove all shot game from the field if lead ammunition is used.