The extreme environmental advocacy group, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) issued a press release on April 16, 2013, stating that certain recent California condor (Condor) deaths were “definitively” caused by Condors ingesting lead while feeding on carrion that had been harve

The extreme environmental advocacy group, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) issued a press release on April 16, 2013, stating that certain recent California condor (Condor) deaths were “definitively” caused by Condors ingesting lead while feeding on carrion that had been harvested with lead-based ammunition. CBD’s claims have been criticized by the head of the Arizona Condor Recovery Program and by the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Now documents recently obtained from the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AGFD) under Arizona’s public records law show that even non-governmental environmental organizations within the Arizona Condor Recovery Program are frustrated with CBD’s fast-and-loose tactics.

Chris Parish, leader of The Peregrine Fund’s California Condor Restoration Project in Arizona (recently named Natural Resource Professional of the Year by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission) said the following in an email he sent to AGFD’s California Condor Project Coordinator Allen Zufelt on April 17, 2013, about CBD’s press release.

It seems CBD has jumped the start in reporting our lead situation and as usual didn’t get the numbers right and failed to recognize that both the voluntary and ban mitigation efforts have, as of yet failed to reveal a response in condor blood-lead levels and condor deaths . . . . I despise the fact that special interest groups take it upon themselves to represent the program and do so with faulty data. This should be brought to the attention of the public.

After the CBD release went out, Mr. Zufelt was contacted by a reporter about the CBD press release, and he expressed similar problems with CBD’s claims.  When Mr. Zufelt saw CBD’s  press release, he had this to say: “[j]ust on the initial quick read . . . there are definitely some factual errors or other misleading statements which were engineered to hide the truth.”   Ultimately, Mr. Zufelt provided the reporter, and others, with a list of the multiple “errors or misleading statements” made by CBD that he identified.

Attorneys for the NRA also saw the CBD press release, and they questioned CBD’s claims regarding the causal-link between condor deaths and hunters’ lead ammunition.  The NRA requested evidence from CBD to support its claims, but CBD provided a non-sequitur response.  By failing to comply with the NRA lawyers’ specific requests in its response, CBD effectively admitted that it had made unsubstantiated claims in its press release.  More information on that exchange can be found here.

When it comes to facts, governmental and non-governmental observers seem to agree: CBD cries wolf about its recent unsubstantiated claims regarding a causal-link between hunters’ lead ammunition and lead poisoning in Condors.  Visit www.HuntForTruth.org for more information regarding the debate on lead ammunition.