There's no good reason to shoot doves; vote no on Proposal 3

Sunday, November 5, 2006
By Julie Baker

For 100 years, the mourning dove has been protected in Michigan. For decades, out-of-state extremists have tried to take away this tradition and create a dove season, but our Legislature listened to the vast majority of Michigan residents and hunters who oppose dove shooting.

Now, however, out-of-state extremists are pushing Proposal 3 to create a new dove-shooting season. The Committee to Keep Doves Protected strongly urges voters in our state to keep Michigan's tradition of protecting doves by voting ``No'' on Proposal 3.

There's just no good reason to shoot doves. Doves are not overpopulated, they do not cause harm to people or property and, as there is virtually no meat on their tiny bodies, doves are not shot for food, they are shot for simple target practice -- killing for the sake of killing. The proposed dove shooting season is particularly cruel in that it would take place during the doves' nesting season, meaning thousands of orphaned baby doves would die of starvation.
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Doves are songbirds, not game birds. There are already 40 game bird species in Michigan. Do we need to shoot traditional backyard songbirds as well? And if we start down the path of shooting songbirds, what's next? Sand hill cranes? Cardinals? Bluebirds?

Dove hunting proponents have attempted to scare people into thinking that somehow, if Proposal 3 does not pass, it could lead to the end of all hunting and fishing in Michigan. That's preposterous. Doves have been protected for a century. How could keeping it that way threaten traditional hunting? We are simply protecting traditional Michigan values. We did not pick this fight, and we seek to change no law regarding traditional hunting practices. We simply want to keep things as they always have been. We respect Michigan's hunting heritage, but shooting doves is not a part of that heritage.

The fact is, dove shooting proponents are down in the polls (Yes, 25 percent; No, 66 percent) so they are hurling desperate accusations to mislead and scare voters. Our opponents' own poll showed that even a majority of Michigan hunters are against dove shooting. So proponents are trying to confuse people about Proposal 3, saying it is about more than just dove shooting. But read the ballot language for yourself. Proposal 3 is just about doves, nothing else.

Dove shooting proponents are attacking the Humane Society of the United States, one of the supporters of our campaign. They say the Humane Society is against all hunting and against all animal testing in medical research. They are wrong on both counts. The Humane Society is not opposed to all hunting, but rather works to end the most cruel abuses of hunting like canned hunts (where animals are shot in fenced-in areas) and Internet hunting (controlling a gun with computer mouse and killing animals over the Internet, which even the National Rifle Association opposed and the Michigan Legislature has outlawed).

And the Humane Society's policy on animal research is ``the three Rs: reduce, refine and replace.'' They work with scientists to help reduce pain and distress to animals in laboratories, and to develop new alternatives to animal testing when possible. Saying Proposal 3 is the end of all hunting and animal testing is an out-and-out lie.

A vast majority of Michigan's major newspapers, including the Flint Journal, have endorsed a ``No'' vote on Proposal 3. The Flint Journal said, ``The arguments for dove shooting range from the unconvincing to the ridiculous.'' Here is one of the arguments that is ridiculous: Proponents claim that shooting doves makes more doves. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Population Survey of 2006 says dove populations are in ``significant decline'' in management areas in which a majority of states hunt doves, and a 2003 report says that doves have a higher rate of survival in states where they are protected. In other words, the evidence shows that shooting doves leads to fewer doves, not more. This seems painfully obvious to everyone except dove-shooting proponents.

A new dove season would not help, and may harm, Michigan's economy. A recent study proved that a dove-shooting season would not produce economic benefit in Michigan. (See the study at www.NoOnProposal3.com.) In fact, it would cost tax dollars to run the new season. In these tough budget times, the state should spend our money on education, health care and job creation -- not dove shooting.

The Committee to Keep Doves Protected is a grassroots coalition of farming, conservation, humane, faith-based and community organizations and thousands of Michigan citizens. Our coalition has only one goal: to keep doves protected -- just as they have been for 100 years.

We urge voters to continue to uphold the values Michiganders have shared for 100 years and prevent the needless shooting of mourning doves.

Please vote ``No'' on Proposal 3 -- ``No'' on shooting doves.

Julie Baker is the director of the Committee to Keep Doves

Protected.