Media Coverage - Dove hunting petition drive beats goal
Published March 25, 2005. By John Pepin. The Mining Journal.
MARQUETTE - Proponents of a drive to put Michigan mourning dove hunting on a statewide election ballot say they've beat a deadline to gather enough required petition signatures.
"We've received pages full of signatures from the Upper Peninsula," said Julie Baker, campaign director for the Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban, headquartered in Lansing. The committee has until Tuesday to submit 158,879 signatures of registered voters to the state Bureau of Elections to get the issue on the Nov. 6, 2006, election ballot.
However, Baker said the group is still receiving signatures in the mail daily after a self-imposed March 15 submittal deadline.
Committee officials had hoped to gather at least 225,000 signatures, providing a cushion of more than 66,000 names to allow for disqualified entries. "We're sure we've exceeded our goal," Baker said. "The mail is enormous. We're still getting signatures, but we're not soliciting petitions."
The number of signatures required by the state, which has 60 days from Tuesday to certify the names , represents 5 percent of the votes received for all candidates in the last general election for governor.
Last year, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission, the governor-appointed rule-making body of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, approved an order making Michigan the 41st state to offer a mourning dove season.
Legislation was then signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The season began in September and ended Oct. 30. Hunter bag limits were 15 doves per day, with 30 in possession.
The experimental dove hunting season is in place for three years in six counties lining the state's southern border, including Berrien, Branch, Cass, Hillsdale, St. Joseph and Lenawee. Biologists are to monitor hunter participation and impacts to the mourning dove population and make recommendations to the NRC, which would decide if the hunt should be expanded to other parts of the state.
But if enough petition signatures are certified, the hunts will be put on hold until the referendum can be decided by voters. "The people of the state of Michigan feel very strongly about this issue and they want the right to vote on it," Baker said.
Diane Tedora of Harvey was one of about 7,000 people statewide working on the effort to collect petition signatures. Tedora said while she opposes shooting mourning doves, she does not oppose hunting. "All I wanted was to see it go to a public vote," Tedora said. "That's all I ever wanted to do. It's not an anti-hunting thing. Let the public vote on it. Period. That's supposed to be the way our country is run."
Tedora said she collected more than 15 pages of signatures herself and mailed petitions to many people across the U.P.
Baker said at least 60,000 signatures submitted came from hunters who oppose the dove hunts, which until last fall had not been allowed in Michigan for almost a century. The new season was expected to boost the state's economy by $87 million. "They don't feel the mourning dove is a good image for their sport," Baker said.
However, many hunters say dove hunting allows great opportunities to involve children, elderly and the handicapped in family hunting activities. Others fear the petition drive is another effort to curtail hunting in general in Michigan.
But for some people, including Tedora, mourning dove hunting is not very sporting. She said she believes the birds are used cruelly for sport target shooting, with only limited meat available when the birds are consumed. She said there is a high wounding rate in shooting mourning doves, hunters use lead shotgun pellets which can be harmful to the environment, and when doves are shot, hunters are killing birds that mate for life and share nesting duties.
In gathering signatures, Baker said one person downstate was pushed to the ground by someone opposed to the referendum.
Tedora said she didn't receive any hate calls or threats, but did encounter "stonewalling" from several area businesses refusing to allow her to leave petitions for customers to sign. "I think most of the problem I had here was getting the message out," Tedora said.
