Lead shot ban announced

The Wild Animal Welfare Committee strongly welcomes the UK government’s announcement of a ban on the use of lead bullets and shot for live quarry and target shooting. The restriction covers the placing on the market and use of lead shot containing lead in a concentration equal to or greater than 1% by weight and will apply after a 3 year transition period. The government’s reasoning is set out in a restriction decision under the UK REACH regulations, which confirms that the ban will apply across the UK with the consent of the Scottish and Welsh Governments.

Conservation NGOs have long campaigned for a full ban on lead shot (following a partial ban covering wetlands) on the basis of the seriously damaging effects of lead pollution on human and animal health and the environment. In March this year, WAWC wrote to the DEFRA Secretary of State, Steve Reed MP, to make the welfare case. We said:

We write as an organisation committed to the welfare of wildlife to encourage you to act, and act swiftly, on these recommendations to reduce the amount of lead entering the environment and to improve the welfare of animals that become exposed to this dangerous toxin.

We are aware that colleagues in other conservation and animal welfare advocacy organisations are also writing to you, and we support those representations.  The purpose of this letter is to emphasise further the impact of lead poisoning on the welfare of sentient individuals.

The effects of lead on animals are well understood.   Acute and chronic lead poisoning causes the deaths of numerous waterbirds and birds of prey affecting the very existence of many of the species that breed or spend the winter in Great Britain.  Lead poisoning represents a significant welfare concern since prior to death affected birds and mammals will suffer a variety of sub-lethal effects, such as reduced body condition, altered immune responses, effects on blood parameters and the cardiovascular system, altered kidney histopathology and ocular lesions which may lead to blindness, and effects on reproduction, growth and development (such as reduced egg hatchability and juvenile survival). Welfare impacts can result in severe and prolonged discomfort, distress and pain.

It is clear therefore that individual animals will suffer when exposed to lead often at very low concentrations.   A recognition of sentience in vertebrates (and some invertebrates) imposes on society a responsibility to act when human activities have a substantial impact on animal welfare.  This responsibility, we believe, is over and above the imperative to act to protect the populations at risk.  The fact that the effects of lead poisoning are often subtle and insidious does not diminish this responsibility.

In response, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Emma Hardy MP, advised WAWC that a decision was still pending. That decision has now been made and WAWC congratulates the Minister on the decision, as well as the many individuals and organisations that have been promoting the scientific, ethical and welfare arguments for a ban on lead shot.