In November, one of the oldest condors in Central California died from lead poisoning after being found with tiny bullet fragments and a .22-caliber slug in his gullet that he apparently swallowed with a mouthful of meat.
The 9-year-old giant was one of the earliest released in a condor recovery program along the Big Sur coast. His death — and the recent death of a golden eagle near Sacramento — are being highlighted by health and environmental groups who want California to become the first state to impose a statewide ban on the use of lead bullets for hunting.
California lawmakers weigh first statewide ban on lead ammo | Fox News
Wind farms are going to make raptors extinct in California. Green energy insanity is the biggest threat to California wildlife.
Wind power turbines in Altamont Pass threaten protected birds
Scores of golden eagles have been killed after striking the thousands of wind turbines in the Bay Area, raising questions about California’s move toward alternative power.
The death count, averaging 67 a year for three decades, worries field biologists because the turbines, which have been providing thousands of homes with emissions-free electricity since the 1980s, lie within a region of rolling grasslands and riparian canyons containing one of the highest densities of nesting golden eagles in the United States.
“It would take 167 pairs of local nesting golden eagles to produce enough young to compensate for their mortality rate related to wind energy production,” said field biologist Doug Bell, manager of East Bay Regional Park District’s wildlife program. “We only have 60 pairs.”
Gov. Jerry Brown in April signed into law a mandate that a third of the electricity used in California come from renewable sources, including wind and solar, by 2020. The new law is the most aggressive of any state.
Clean energy: Clean energy clashes with safety of protected bird species – Los Angeles Times
California was famously losing the fight for its sanity (sane government especially) as far back as the 1960’s, when Jerry Brown was first governor. That fight (against what I now call the insane Left) was what brought Ronald Reagan the political leader into existence. Being progressive is Californians’ “thing”–much like being a devout science fiction fan, only not being able to tell fiction from fact. The “Tom Swift” books (about a boy scientist who can invent anything–I got “Tom Swift and His Spectromarine Selector” for Christmas one year–around 1960–and have never forgotten that title) come to mind. Silicon Valley came out of that science fandom. Of course, if you were a budding intellect anywhere, as a child growing up in the ’50’s and early ’60’s, you were a science fan. Anyone remember Bell Telephone’s “Our Mister Sun”?–or the IGY, for that matter? (Or Sputnik, Vanguard, and Explorer I–a plastic model of which you could NOT launch with baking soda and water, as I found out…) See the 1960’s book, “The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California” (before it fell into the ocean, as everyone knew it would someday).
Remember? I wanted to be Dr. Frank Baxter when I grew up.
Liberals have no morals. Liberals have no principles. Liberals have no values.
LIberals will do anything … anything … to further their goals. They will steal, lie, deceive, threaten and exterminate anything that gets in their way. They have done so in the past and they will do it again.
The eco-loons and lefties have taken over California. No wonder there is a max exodus from the Golden State. The huge bureaucracy erected by the “progressive” cultists is suffocating private businesses and destroying the state’s tax base.
“Mass exodus,” not “max.”
By the way, I lived in Southern California (Orange County) throughout the 50s and 60s before moving to Central Florida (Disney organization) in 1971. It was a great place to live then. It’s a shame to watch California self-destruct, another victim of an out-of-control statist ideology that will eventually force the state into bankruptcy.
I doubt the Condor died of lead poisoning. It would have passed the lead fragments quickly, not giving the lead time to do any damage. Something fishy about this story.
Or some stinking liberal deliberately poisoned it to get a control-freak law passed. That is very plausible.
Reblogged this on If You Voted For It — You Own It.
California is intellectually, fiscally, and morally bankrupt.
Another reason to be happy I don’t live in California anymore.
I took a trip to Northern California last Fall. Clear Lake and up the Feather River. It is a whole different state up there. We were in a bar where there was smoking. Lots of hogs out front, and riders in leather getting the nic fix in complete defiance of the stinking liberals, none of whom venture out to that part of California anyway.
Liberals need to be put on reservations. Wall off the cities and keep the little collectivist cheese-chasers where we don’t have to see them, hear them, or smell them. Their welfare pets can live there too in rich diverse harmony.
Yep, and in Canada they cut down trees with active Bald Eagle nests, just to make room for a wind farm. Wonder how long that blood line will last?
But…but…if The State bans lead bullets, how will they fight against Enemies of The People? You can’t properly collectivise without guns! Oh, wait, you mean NOT ALL bullets are banned….only the ones not fired by The State. Well, that’s alright then.