AR-News: (MI) Oakland Press- Granholm Should Veto Dove Bill

[Political Animal]

While hunters in Minnesota will get their chance this
year to start killing the inoffensive mourning dove,
the issue is not yet settled in Michigan.  Below is an
editorial from the Oakland Press calling on Governor
Jennifer Granholm to veto legislation that would allow
dove hunting.  After that is an HSUS action alert. 
Everyone, please contact Governor Granholm about this
issue today, and ask her to keep her election campaign
promise to veto any bill that would allow dove
hunting.
----

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/051204/opi_20040512020.shtml

 

 

Granholm should do what's right, veto dove hunting
bill

 

Web-posted May 12, 2004

 

Foes of the hunting of doves increasingly are fearful
that Gov. Jennifer Granholm will sign a bill adding
the birds to the state's list of legal game. 

She opposed the legalization while running for the
office and has said she'd only sign a bill that gave
people a chance to put the issue on the ballot. 

The current bill, passed after several years of
trying, contains no provision for a referendum. 

Since that time, the Michigan United Conservation
Clubs have suggested a compromise in which dove
hunting would be allowed, apparently on an
experimental basis, in several southern Michigan
counties bordering other states. 

The fact is, though, that any such limit wouldn't last
long. The bill gives Natural Resources Department
authority to create the season, and do as it pleases. 

And the opposition is principled, not expedient and
open to slippery "compromises." 

The governor may face less political trouble from a
veto of the bill than she fears. 

The fact that the bill approved by the House and
Senate has no referendum provision simply may reflect
the fact that neither foes nor even supporters are
anxious to have to come up with the money and to find
the time to mount a statewide campaign. 

It also may well be that a significant portion of the
support for the bill in the House and Senate came from
lawmakers who were counting on a Granholm veto. They'd
have their cake and eat it, too; please the bill's
supporters, but not have dove hunting in the end. 

The suspicion is that a simple veto could get the
dove-hunting monkey off Lansing's back for a while. 

That it took so many months to reach final passage of
such a simple proposition is evidence of great
reluctance, not philosophical wrangling. 

It's been argued in this space for years that the main
impetus behind the legalization of a dove hunting
season is economic, to create yet another reason for
city folks to visit the state's rural and small-town
reaches and spend money at their chronically
hard-pressed party stores, bars and gas stations. 

One argument on behalf of the new season was that
"Michigan money" was unnecessarily being spent in
Ohio, for example, where dove hunting is legal. 

In addition, dove hunting pleases munitions makers
who've pushed it for years, and still are. It uses up
an extraordinary amount of shot. 

But shooting, tiny perching birds because they're
lively and provide "good sport" is hard to justify on
the basis of where the shooters spend their money. 

More than 30 states have dove seasons and locally
produced cookbooks occasionally contain a recipe
including doves. A dozen of them typically are called
for in a dish intended to feed four people. 

There is no overpopulation. They are no threat to the
environment or to other birds and animals. 

And, as with the death penalty for humans,
Michiganders banned the killing of doves more than a
century ago, when the possibility of putting them on
the table must have meant more than it does now. 

Granholm simply should buckle down and do what she's
known is right and has said is right all along. To do
otherwise will win her no real respect from anyone. 

THE DAILY OAKLAND PRESS
----
>From www.hsus.org

Michigan: Don't Let Doves be Used for Target Practice 
 
  


H.B. 5029, introduced by Representative Susan Tabor,
will allow the hunting of doves in Michigan for the
first time in almost a century. The bill has already
passed the House and Senate and will be eligible for
the governor's desk soon. Your help is needed now to
urge the governor to veto the bill. Your voice can
help protect these docile backyard birds. 
Status: H.B. 5029 passed the Senate by a vote of 22–15
on March 31, and will now go to the House for
concurrence (you can find out how your senator voted
at www.michiganlegislature.org). The bill then heads
to the governor's desk. 

Background: Michigan has prohibited the hunting of
mourning doves since 1905, but legislation is
introduced nearly every year to attempt to reverse the
ban. Special interests have so far failed to change
the status of Michigan's mourning doves from songbird
to game bird because a majority of the state's
citizens oppose the recreational shooting of doves.
H.B. 5029 would add mourning doves to the list of
animals considered game, and would allow the state to
set a hunting season on them. 

What You Can Do: Call, fax and e-mail Governor
Jennifer M. Granholm and urge her to veto H.B. 5029.
The governor needs to hear from Michigan residents
that doves should not be used for target practice. Ask
her to stand by her campaign promise to veto
legislation that would allow doves to be hunted (see
www.savethedoves.org/news/news_050304.html). 

Governor Jennifer M. Granholm
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, MI 48909
517-373-3400
Fax: 517-335-6863
www.michigan.gov/gov 

Talking Points 

You may include the following points in your letters
or phone calls to legislators: 


Make it clear you do not want recreational hunting
"management" used on this songbird. 

Dove hunting is inherently cruel. Statistics show that
nearly 20% of doves shot by hunters are wounded and
not retrieved. 

Mourning doves are small birds, yielding very little
meat. Hence, dove hunting amounts to nothing more than
target practice for hunters.
Michigan newspapers throughout the state are
editorializing in opposition to shooting doves. For
more information, see www.savethedoves.org. 



	
		
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