AR-News: (MI) Will Granholm Break Her Promise, Sign Dove Bill?

[Political Animal]

Two Items:

1. Action alert from the Songbird Protection Coalition
2. Wayne Pacelle's Op-Ed that ran in todays Detroit
Free Press

URGENT NEWS AND ACTION ALERT! June 10, 2004

HB 5029, the dove shooting bill, hit the Governor's
desk TODAY at 1:48 pm. The Governor now has up to 14
days (real days, not business days) to consider and
make her decision. As we all know, the Governor is
wavering on her VETO promises to voters and needs to
hear from you RIGHT NOW! We cannot let her abandon her
word, the majority, or her voting base.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

 
1.  CALL, FAX, AND EMAIL Granholm's office TODAY!
There is no time to lose...see talking points below...

Gov Jennifer Granholm
Phone: (517) 373-3400 or (517) 335-7858 - you can also
leave a message after hours.
Fax: (517) 335-6863 Send an automatic fax on-line from
the Fund's website here
Email form:
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995-65331--,00.html


ALSO Email and Call her through her campaign office
info at granholmforgov.com (517)485-5000. Leave a message
for Granholm to VETO HB 5029. Tell them you will keep
her decision in mind when she asks for your vote in
2006. If this is a deciding issue for your vote, be
sure to convey that information to the staff person.
If you are receiving the latest fundraiser
invitations, convey your message as a donor and
supporter.

FYI: Dove-shooting proponents have told their on-line
factions to call the Governor over and over again due
to office staff not taking "names."


2.  Dove shooting proponents have targeted these
on-line polls, please quickly cast your vote in both
polls:  
http://www.detnews.com/2004/politics/0406/08/politics-177750.htm


http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/3027671/detail.html


See "form" letter (and SPC concerns) to constituents
from Governor Granholm here
http://savethedoves.org/misc/granholmformletter.html

HERE ARE VALUABLE TALKING POINTS TO USE WHEN YOU TALK
TO A STAFF PERSON, DRAFT YOUR FAX/EMAILS, or write
that Letter to the Editor:

Ask Governor Granholm to VETO HB 5029, the dove
shooting bill. Ask her not to abandon her word, the
majority, or her voting base. It appears that she only
is consulting with the MUCC and NRC on this issue --
and that is NOT a "compromise!"

HB 5029, the "dove bill," is technically flawed and
divisive (the two main reasons that Granholm has said
she vetoes legislation):

1) Due to ballot deadlines, concerned citizens cannot
get this on the November ballot as a referendum and
there is deliberately no language in the bill that
would allow for an automatic vote by the people - as
Granholm had originally requested to the legislature. 

The Republican controlled House of Representatives
deliberately held up moving this bill so that citizens
would not have time to gather petition signatures to
get it on the ballot this November because dove
shooting proponents fear a public vote on this issue
as they know the majority - including the majority of
hunters - oppose it. 

2) The bill does NOT include any purported
"compromise" in its language. Instead, it authorizes
the Natural Resources Commission - which has never
made its dove hunt agenda secret - to open a shooting
season on doves at anytime, anywhere in the state. 

The DNR/NRC has proven it cannot be trusted
http://savethedoves.org/news_courtorder.html with the
mourning dove. In the mid-1980s, the NRC bypassed the
Michigan Legislature, ignored significant opposition
by the majority of citizens, and illegally established
a mourning dove hunting season in Michigan. The
Michigan Humane Society, a non-profit organization,
was forced to file suit to right this illegal action.
Subsequently, the courts [1985] issued a permanent
injunction that the DNR/NRC cannot promote the hunting
of doves in Michigan. The DNR and NRC have since - and
continue to - violate this injunction.

3) No restrictions or conditions were included in the
bill. No discussion was allowed on the Senate or House
floor regarding a sunset on the bill, or a ban on the
use of toxic lead shot in an effort to avoid any such
amendments being attached that would sunset the bill
or ban the use of toxic shot and require steel shot.
This was also why the bill was suddenly pulled last
minute from Senator Johnson's Approps Committee last
February.

NOTE: Lead shot is only banned for waterfowl hunting.
It is the preferred and most commonly used "shot" for
mourning dove hunting, despite the fact that it is a
known environmental contaminant with deadly long-term
consequences. See the most recent scientific research
here
http://savethedoves.org/misc/toxicshottakestoll.html
Despite the indisputable reality of lead poisoning,
special interest lobby groups who claim "conservation"
and "environmental" missions, openly oppose the ban of
toxic lead shot on doves -- that would set precedent
in accountability. In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush
recently (5/2004) signed a law giving those who
knowingly pollute the environment with large amounts
of lead shot almost total immunity from lead cleanup
lawsuits.

4) If Governor Granholm signs HB 5029 into law, she
will break several solid promises to voters that she
would veto the legislation. 

The so-called "compromise" being discussed is only a
smokescreen for an otherwise self-serving measure to
establish a statewide dove hunt, since the language is
not included in the bill. In reality it is merely a
"suggestion" as to how the NRC "might" administer the
first three hunts. Nothing more. And no other groups
are involved in these talks other than the MUCC and
NRC.

The proposed "compromise" also does nothing to address
the environmental hazards that go along with dove
hunting, as MUCC President Sam Washington has made it
clear that they were not willing to concede on the use
of lead shot. Additionally, see the stats Wisconsin
didn't want revealed here
http://savethedoves.org/news/news_052004.html

See 10 additional reasons for Granholm to VETO HB 5029
here http://savethedoves.org/news/news_052404.html

FOR MORE INFORMATION and UPDATES, PLEASE VISIT
http://www.SaveTheDoves.org

THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO SAVE MICHIGAN'S DOVES!!!

Photo: Mourning dove babies in the nest right now!
This photo just taken today by one of our members.
Copyright © 2004 John L.

---
 

http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/epace11_20040611.htm

WAYNE PACELLE: Good reasons to keep state dove hunting
ban 
Detroit Free Press
June 11, 2004 

For 99 years, the State of Michigan has banned the
target shooting of mourning doves -- gentle and
inoffensive birds that cause harm to no one. Each
year, sure as shooting, the National Rifle Association
and the Michigan United Conservation Clubs have
attempted to overturn the ban. 

This year, the NRA and the MUCC succeeded in ramming a
dove hunting bill through the Legislature. But they
faced an obstacle in Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who had
promised during her 2002 election campaign to veto any
dove hunting bill. Earlier this year, Granholm
backtracked slightly, declaring that she would sign
the bill only if it contained a provision to allow the
public to vote on the subject. 

Subsequently, the MUCC hatched a plan that the group
described as a "compromise" -- to allow a dove hunting
season in portions of southern Michigan. The hunt
would be evaluated after three years by the Natural
Resources Committee, a group made up primarily of
hunters who are all but certain to give the green
light to continued target-shooting of doves. 

The MUCC is free to label its dove hunting plan a
compromise, but no objective observer should be the
least bit confused about this false nomenclature. The
MUCC is embarking on a two-step plan, with both steps
calling for dove hunting. The first step allows dove
hunting in southern Michigan, and the second step
would allow for dove hunting throughout the state. 

Astonishingly, Granholm has signaled she is
considering the proposal, even though there are no new
facts or information that have come to light to prompt
a change in her original position, which was the right
one. 

If hunters want to set their sights on a particular
species, they often argue that the animals are a pest:
deer overpopulate, raccoons spread rabies, gophers dig
up crops, and so on. The task of killing is thus made
to seem like a public service. 

But it's difficult to demonize the gentle dove. Their
quiet coo is welcomed in our backyards, and they are
widely regarded as symbols of peace. Doves don't
overpopulate; they regulate their own numbers without
any help from us and have done so in Michigan for
nearly a century. They don't destroy crops; they are
ground-feeding birds that help farmers by eating weed
seeds. They don't eat ornamental shrubs. They don't
carry or spread avian influenza, monkey pox, chronic
wasting disease, or any other infectious scourge. They
don't tip over trash cans or even leave droppings on
golf courses. 

Protecting Michigan's doves still leaves hunters with
the opportunity to kill a wide variety of other birds
-- more than 40 species in all. There are, of course,
many sizes and species of geese and ducks. There are
the upland birds such as pheasant, partridge and
grouse. Then there are turkeys and a flock of others
from coots and other rails to snipe and woodcock. It's
enough avian diversity to keep any bird hunter busy
and both barrels ablaze. 

Then there's the matter of needless suffering. Data
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reveal a
wounding rate in excess of 25 percent, which means
that one in every four birds shot is not retrieved. 

And dove shooting also translates into the discharge
of mounds of lead shot, which pollutes our environment
and poisons other wildlife. The lead shot that hunters
discharge on one day far outweighs the mass of the
birds they kill. 

Michigan voters oppose dove hunting, and every
statewide survey of the electorate supports that fact.
Gov. Granholm has no reason to give in to the gun
lobby. Compromise is one thing; capitulation is
another. 

WAYNE PACELLE is the chief executive officer of the
Humane Society of the United States. Write to him in
care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 600 W. Fort
St., Detroit, MI 48226. 



	
		
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