Gerald Landry

My name is Gerald Landry. My search for personal autonomy and better ways to love and care for the world around me will probably never end. My experiences at One Stone have been fruitful in this search. In the last ten weeks, my passions have grown immensely for the outdoors. In fact, I recently worked on a project related to lead poisoning in animals, and my artifact is an x-ray of fragments of lead ammunition in a big game. As a hunter, I’ve come to realize that I inadvertently inflict harm upon animals that I am not hunting. During my project, I learned that birds, coyotes, and other scavengers can be poisoned from the use of lead ammunition. After an animal is shot, bits of lead can be spread within unused parts of its carcass. When the carcass is left behind, the scavengers consume the carcass and the lead. Of course this is greatly disheartening for me, especially because I strive to be a moral and ethical hunter. My pursuit for that station in hunting drove me to research the effects of lead ammunition ways to decrease its impact. One way to decrease the impact of lead toxicity is using copper ammunition. Copper ammunition is only ten dollars more. The reason I say “only” is because ammo is the cheapest part of a hunt. Another way to decrease the impact of lead toxicity is by burying the carcass and excess tissue. Although I’ll probably use copper ammunition, the important take-away for me is that my perspective of hunting, nature, the outdoors, and the way the ecosystem meshes together has been significantly altered through this experience. I’ve always cared about the environment, but it was never an academic focus for me. I now look forward to continuing this research and am an advocate for changing the way people hunt.