How lead from ammunition, fishing weights, and paint causes suffering and death in eagles, condors, waterfowl, and other wild birds.
Lead poisoning in wild birds causes a particularly distressing death. Birds that ingest lead fragments from hunter-shot carcasses or spent fishing weights develop progressive neurological deterioration - stumbling, inability to fly, loss of coordination - before dying over days or weeks. Eagles that scavenge gut piles from hunters are exposed to high lead concentrations from bullet fragmentation. Condors, with their low reproductive rate, are particularly vulnerable to lead-induced population impacts. All of these deaths are preventable through the adoption of lead-free alternatives that are commercially available.