For Immediate Release June 4, 2026 Contact: Lindsey von Busch at 732.284.9089| li*****@******************on.org
Animal Welfare and Public Health Groups File Petition in Colorado to Ban Lead Ammunition for Hunting
Lead poisons and kills dozens of wildlife species and is also an acute threat to hunting families and others eating wild game shot with the toxic, irreducible metal
Albany, NY — A coalition of animal welfare, public health organizations, and wildlife management professionals, including a raft of Colorado-based groups, have filed a formal petition with the state’s Parks and Wildlife Commission (CPW) calling on the agency to initiate rulemaking to prohibit the ongoing use of lead-based ammunition for sport hunting in the state. The groups assert that the scientific evidence documenting the harms of lead ammunition to wildlife, the environment, and public health is overwhelming and long settled.
“Lead is a potent neurotoxin, and it’s been recognized as deadly to humans and other animals for more than 2,500 years,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “Lawmakers and regulators have banned its use in gasoline, paint, plumbing, and other pathways of exposure, and today ammunition discharges by hunters is by far the largest commercial pathway for dispersing lead in the environment. It makes no sense, given the alternatives, for the state to stand on the sidelines and allow the mass distribution of this toxic, irreducible element across millions of acres of Colorado’s landscapes, poisoning wildlife and putting hunting families and food bank patrons at risk of inadvertent poisoning by consuming wild-game meat embedded with lead.”
“Coloradans love wildlife and good wildlife policy starts with good science,” says Chandra Rosenthal, PEER’s Western Lands and Rocky Mountain Advocate. “When nearly half of bald and golden eagles show signs of chronic lead exposure, the course for a state like Colorado is clear. It is time for us to step up and ban lead ammo.”
“The devastating ecological toll of lead poisoning in Colorado’s environment is preventable. The question isn’t about definitive science, nor about cost comparisons, or so-called gun control. The question is about Colorado having the willingness to ensure healthy natural resources for its wildlife, its environment and its people of all economic backgrounds – now and for future generations to come,” stated Elaine Leslie, executive council member of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “As a Colorado resident, I urge the state to set an example and implement the most effective wildlife and human health protection measures available.”
“Coloradans greatly value wildlife and appreciate the importance of wildlife and wild spaces to our economy. Given all the pressures that wildlife in Colorado are now facing, it is long past time to stop poisoning them with lead ammunition. There is no justification for continuing to introduce a potent neurotoxin into the environment, threatening both wildlife and human health, when alternatives are readily available,” said Andrea Metzer, spokesperson for Colorado Voters for Animals.
“This petition lays out a crystal clear legal and scientific case for regulatory action in Colorado,” said Dan Ashe, a life-long hunter and former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director (2011-2017). “Hunters will be using superior and safer ammunition, non-targeted wildlife will be spared needless poisoning, and families and people relying on donated venison will be protected from toxic exposure.”
While some states, including Colorado, have adopted voluntary programs in an attempt to curtail lead ammunition the petition filed with CPW calls for a mandatory phase out since “voluntary programs attract very few participants, have proved to be unscalable, and are no substitute for comprehensive legal standards to compel the transition to widely available, affordable ammunition made from other elements and alloys that does not keep killing long after a round has left the barrel,” noted Scott Edwards, the general counsel for Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy.
Scavenging wildlife—including eagles, hawks, vultures, and mammals—ingest lead fragments as they pick through gut piles and suffer acute poisoning or long-term neurological damage. Other animals directly consume lead fragments from stream bottoms or in the soil.
There are more than 500 peer-reviewed papers that document mass poisoning of more than 130 species of wildlife that perish from plumbism. A landmark 2022 study published in Science of 1,210 eagles across 38 states found that nearly half of eagles had bone lead levels consistent with chronic poisoning, and roughly one-third showed evidence of acute exposure. Lead fragments in the remains of hunted animals were identified as a primary driver of these population-level effects.
Dr. Aisha Dickerson, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has testified that there is no CDC safe level of lead and testified lead is a well-documented neurotoxin affecting brain development, organ systems, and long-term cognitive health in humans, too. She described that lead accumulates over time in the brain, blood and bones, blocking calcium absorption, reducing growth in children, causing bones to be more brittle in women, and weakening bones in seniors making them more susceptible falling and serious harm if not worse.
She noted there should be serious concern about donated deer meat to food banks, where these consumers unwittingly consumer dangerous levels of lead. Peer-reviewed scientific studies from NIH show there can be a reduction in IQ in children who have been exposed to lead, including lead ammunition, from 5 to 7+ points impacting their ability to learn and creating behavioral issues that parents and the school systems are left to deal with. See: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9150353/
The petition underscores that non-lead ammunition—such as copper and copper-alloy projectiles—is widely available at brick-and-mortar gun and ammunition stores and also on-line sales channels.
California enacted a statewide ban on lead ammunition for hunting in 2013, and it’s been a great success story in protecting California condors and dozens of other species in the state. A generation prior, in 1991, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife mandated an end to the use of lead ammunition in hunting ducks, geese, and other waterfowl. When this ban went into effect – long before there were on-line sales of ammunition allowing hunters to purchase ammunition in the national marketplace in two or three days — hunters made the transition to lead-free shot for waterfowl hunting in all 50 states. The policy saves 1.4 million to 3.9 million ducks and geese annually, with more abundant waterfowl population enhancing hunting success rates for hunters and hunting guides.
“Our petition lays out a clear legal and scientific case for regulatory action in Colorado,” Pacelle added. “Hunters can continue their traditions with safer ammunition, wildlife can be spared needless poisoning, and families relying on donated venison can be protected from toxic exposure.” The organizations stated that if the agency declines to act on the petition or unreasonably delays rulemaking, they are prepared to pursue all available legal remedies to ensure that the public trust in wildlife is upheld and that preventable lead exposure is addressed.
Petition signers include Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, Colorado Voters for Animals, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Arkansas Valley Audubon Society, Black Canyon Audubon Society, Bleating Hearts Sanctuary, Colorado Wild, Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, Doggidy Do, Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary, Rocky Mountain WildHeart Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Rocky Mountain Wildlife Alliance, Roaring Fork Audubon, San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council, Science for Colorado, Science for Colorado Wildlife.
Jim Keen, DVM, PhD, director of veterinary science for the Center for a Humane Economy, wrote a synthesis of the literature on the deadly effects of hunter-dispersed lead fragments. That report is here.
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Animal Wellness Action is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) whose mission is to help animals by promoting laws and regulations at federal, state and local levels that forbid cruelty to all animals. The group also works to enforce existing anti-cruelty and wildlife protection laws. Animal Wellness Action believes helping animals helps us all. X: @AWAction_News
The Center for a Humane Economy is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) whose mission is to help animals by helping forge a more humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both. The Center believes helping animals helps us all. X: @TheHumaneCenter