December 25, 2024 By Merritt Clifton
Officially named the U.S. national bird after 242 years, bald eagles can’t get a break from the gun lobby
WASHINGTON D.C.––Two hundred forty-two years after first appearing on the U.S. national seal, the bald eagle is now officially the U.S. national bird––but that designation as yet does nothing whatever to protect eagles from ingesting lead shot in the scavenged carcasses of animals killed by hunters, long the leading cause of eagle deaths.
S. 4610, formally naming the bald eagle the national bird of the U.S., was among 50 bills endorsed into law on Christmas Eve by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The 50 bills were among the last to be passed by the 118th Congress, to adjourn on January 3, 2025 after several heated battles over lead shot, including two floor votes in the House of Representatives in 2023 that killed a deal which would have expanded hunting opportunities on 48 National Wildlife Refuges in exchange for a ban on use of lead shot on just those refuges––a mere 8% of the National Wildlife Refuge system.
New Congress is unlikely to do anything about lead
Even better would be to refrain from shooting and hooking wildlife altogether.
But opposition to hunting is what the National Rifle Association, Safari Club International, the National Shooting Sports Federation, and the Sportsman’s Alliance Foundation most fear, seeing any faint political gesture toward a lead shot ban as a step toward the abolition of recreational hunting in any form.
Given the influence of those organizations over the “red state” Republican contingents in both houses of the newly elected 119th Congress, the chances of the incoming Donald Trump administration promoting a ban on lead shot are no better than the chances of a bald eagle with a belly full of lead.
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