When did health concerns over lead in venison surface?
Health concerns over lead in venison were virtually nonexistent until March 2008 when Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck dermatologist and board member of the Peregrine Fund, informed the North Dakota Department of Health that he’d tested 95 one-pound samples of ground venison donated through state food pantries and found lead fragments in 53 of them. At Cornatzer’s announcement, North Dakota and Minnesota actually disposed of thousands of pounds of venison destined for needy families. Iowa delayed distribution until it could do its own testing, then resumed distribution. Cornatzer was on the board of directors for the Peregrine Fund, a group that had supported the ban on lead ammunition in California’s condor range. Cornatzer’s announcement was timed just weeks before the Peregrine Fund was set to hold a conference in May, entitled, “Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans.” Many felt the timing of his announcement was a deliberate attempt to draw atten
