By Susan Recce

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is reopening a debate over the safety of lead ammunition used by hunters. Because faulty science has been used to ban lead ammunition in California, it is important to get the facts out early so Oregonians aren’t similarly duped into adopting a ban that could do more harm than good.

In a recent guest column (“Lead ammunition should be phased out in Oregon,” July 4), Rene Tatro, a Wilsonville environmental lawyer with a practice in Los Angeles who has served as legal counsel for the Humane Society of the United States, made the uninformed claim that “millions of animals” are “poisoned by foraging spent lead shot from the ground, consuming contaminated prey or scavenging gut piles left behind by hunters.” Tatro asserts that “a large body of scientific research links lead to a variety of ills …”