Copper Bullets

We've all heard stories about too many deer. Deer eat our gardens, sometimes to the nubbins. And deer carry deer ticks. Lyme disease is now rampant, though still unrecognized in many places.

As Buddhists, we take the precept every day to do no harm. That doesn't stop other people from hunting deer, which are overpopulating our forests and towns. Some hunters are using copper bullets instead of lead bullets. Since i just learned that the level of lead in my body is 4 times higher than normal, i am very interested in reducing the use of lead in our environment.

One farmer set up a wildlife camera to see what happens to the hunted deer on his property. As you can see, he caught an eagle, a crow, and a red-tailed hawk eating the deer. And no one was eating lead bullets.

The circle of life goes on around us. What we put into that circle comes full circle eventually. If hunters tested the level of lead in their own bodies, they might feel differently about using lead bullets.

We are all so vastly interconnected.