Column: A gut feeling that hunters won’t buy new guidelines

SUN JOURNAL • November 14, 2020

Nothing gets wasted in the wild. Nature makes sure of this. One animal’s demise is another animal’s chance at survival. So it is surprising that the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is asking, with a straight face, that Maine hunters protect avians by transporting the gut piles of their dressed game out of the woods and depositing in local landfills! The concern, of course, is that an eagle might ingest lead bullet fragments from the gut pile. Is this really practical, or even necessary? ~ V. Paul Reynolds