Seventy-three eagles have been hospitalized at Virginia’s state-of-the-art veterinary center – many suffering from lead poisoning according to Wildlife Center of Virginia spokesman Connor Gillespie.
“It’s such a pervasive problem that about 3 out of 4 eagles we admit have some level of lead in their system, and no level of lead is safe. Even a small amount, something that’s the size of a grain of rice, if they ingest it, that’s potentially fatal for them," he says.
The stuff gets into their system when they accidentally ingest lead ammunition.
“Right now, it’s hunting season, and if hunters use lead ammunition to shoot deer for example, on impact it fragments into hundreds of tiny pieces," Gillespie explains. "If the hunters then dress that animal in the field and leave any parts there – like often they’ll leave a gut pile, an animal like a bald eagle that’s a scavenger can come along and think that’s a great meal, and they don’t know they’re ingesting that lead in the process.”
It causes neurological problems. They may be uncoordinated – having trouble flying and higher doses can cause paralysis, seizures and death.
Collisions with cars and trucks can also be deadly.
“They like to be perched somewhere where there’s a wide-open area they can view, like a field for example, and any time a mouse or a rabbit or something scurries out, they can swoop down and catch it quite easily," Gillespie says. "Unfortunately, to them roads are that same purpose. It’s a wide- open area, and if they swoop down at the wrong time when a car is coming, they get hit.”
And Dr. Olivia Schiermeyer, a veterinary research fellow at the center, says other forms of roadkill may be linked to injuries.
“Roadkill can attract scavengers like possums, which then raptors might hunt, but also our vultures get attracted to roadkill and get hit by cars that way.”
But the big surprise this year is barbiturate poisoning. Schiermeyer says six or seven eagles had been feasting on pets or farm animals that were euthanized.
"It is legal to dispose of euthanized carcasses in landfills, and it is up to the landfill to then bury them under."
It appears some landfills – mostly on the east coast – have not done that, and eagles have paid the price.
“Pentobarbital is the drug that we use to euthanize animals, and it causes significant depression of the central nervous system. It decreases their respiratory rate and their heart rate," Schiermeyer explains. "We’ve had several this year come in in varying states of sedation from pentobarbital toxicity.”
The Wildlife Center of Virginia does not advocate for new legal restrictions on disposal of euthanized animals or bans on lead ammunition but is hoping that public education will prompt hunters to choose alternatives that do not contain lead, and landfills will ensure that animals put down with pentobarbital are properly buried.
