Media Coverage - Reject the Dove Hunt
Published October 08, 2006. Editorial. The Saginaw News.
To shoot the dove, or not shoot the dove. That is one of the questions facing voters on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Proposal 3 asks state residents if they want a mourning dove hunting season.
A "yes" vote would allow the hunt, approved by the Legislature in 2004. A "no" vote would ban dove hunting, a songbird protected since 1905 in Michigan.
Four out of five states allow dove hunts, including all our Midwest neighbors, but that alone doesn't justify killing doves here. There are plenty of other birds -- 40 species -- to hunt in Michigan, and the argument that doves are shot for their meat doesn't fly. Since other states allow the hunt, how would one benefit tourism in Michigan? It wouldn't.
Although the species is plentiful in Michigan, it's not overpopulated, so a hunt isn't an wildlife management issue. Doves don't harm crops or property. So why do it? It amounts to little more than live skeet shooting. A hunt for the sake of target practice is unnecessary.
Hunting is a grand tradition in Michigan. We would join the loud chorus if, as hunt supporters claim, the issue was a springboard by animal rights activists to ban other forms of hunting. But that argument is a straw man when it comes to killing doves. Hunting the songbird was illegal for 99 years in this state. Retaining the ban isn't a loss of a hunting privilege.
The referendum pits hunters against birders. We're more sympathetic with the birders, backyard feeders and Michigan's long-standing tradition on protecting doves. Hunters have plenty of other quarry. A NO vote on Proposal 3 lets the birds coo on -- and keeps the guns aimed at edible game and nonliving targets.
THE SAGINAW NEWS
