News
Ballot Committee
Press Release
Conservation and Humane Groups
Launch Signature Gathering
Campaign to Let Michigan Voters Decide Dove Hunt
Published August 5, 2004. Ballot Committee Press Release.
LANSING, Mich. With Michigan's
first dove hunt in decades set to begin as early as mid-September,
the newly created Coalition to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban
announced at a press conference here today that it intends to
gather the 158,000 valid signatures required to put a dove hunt
referendum on the 2006 ballot to reverse a law passed earlier
this year and signed by Governor Jennifer Granholm in June.
The charter members of the coalition include the Michigan Audubon
Society, Detroit Audubon Society, the Kalamazoo Humane Society,
and the Michigan-based Songbird Protection Coalition. The national
organizations represented in the coalition include Animal Protection
Institute, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, Doris Day Animal League, The Fund for Animals, The Humane
Society of the United States (HSUS), and Society for Animal Protective
Legislation. The coalition anticipates additional endorsements
in the near future.
Several of the organizations were represented at the news conference
held at the coalition's campaign office in Lansing.
"This fall, for the first time in nearly a century in Michigan,
hunters will take aim at this gentle songbird in a hunt that
serves no wildlife management purpose," said Sandy Rowland,
director of The HSUS' Great Lakes Regional Office.
"There has been a century-long Michigan tradition of protecting
the gentle and inoffensive mourning dove from target shooting,
and we want that tradition restored," said Michael Markarian,
president of The Fund for Animals. "Michigan voters will
have the final say on whether the bird of peace should be blasted
to pieces."
Markarian pointed to the most recent public opinion poll, conducted
by EPIC/MRA in February that found that only 30 percent of Michigan
voters support dove hunting. The margin of error was plus or
minus four percent.
The groups are organizing volunteers to collect the required
number of valid signatures to place a referendum on the ballot
in November 2006. Signature gathering efforts will begin immediately
and must be completed by March 2005. The referendum will ask
voters to reverse H.B. 5029, which declares the mourning dove
a game bird and authorizes the Natural Resources Commission to
establish an open hunting season in Michigan for the first time
since 1905. The NRC is expected to do so on September 10 and
the dove season could start as early as September 11.
Peggy Ridgway, president of the
Michigan Audubon Society urges voters to support the referendum
effort to protect Michigan's lands and water from dangerous amounts
of lead that will enter the environment from dove hunting. "The
use of toxic lead shot to hunt doves creates yet another negative
invasion to our already burdened environment," she said.
"We have gone to great lengths to remove this environmental
toxin from our gasoline, paint, solder, and even shotguns when
shooting near wetlands. Our stewardship of Michigan's land and
water resources necessitates the elimination of further use of
lead, and the continued effort to clean up what remains."
Mike Boyce of the Michigan Audubon Society's Environmental Action
Committee, stated that "Dove hunting is notoriously inaccurate.
The small, swift birds are difficult to shoot down with a single
shot. As a result, hunters are responsible for discharging an
enormous amount of lead shot that they are not obligated to retrieve."
A study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service found that hunters discharge between
five and eight shots for every dove they shoot. "That lead
shot will contaminate Michigan farm fields and poison doves and
other wildlife," added Boyce.
Another concern for bird enthusiasts is the disruption of the
ecosystem that will result from dove hunting and the likelihood
that dependent young will die of starvation.
James Bull, Ph.D., Detroit Audubon Society president, noted that,
"Mourning doves are a valuable food source for many other
species, including eagles and raptors. Injured doves, full of
lead shot, would be prime targets for predators and scavengers.
The bioaccumulation of lead in those predators could have a major
negative impact on those species, especially those that are already
threatened or endangered."
Bull points out that American kestrels and Sharp-shinned hawks
are at particular risk for misidentification by hunters. "In
fact," he pointed out, "President George W. Bush, while
dove hunting with an experienced guide, shot an American Kestrel
and was fined for the error."
The Detroit Audubon Society was founded in 1939 and represents
6,000 members in southeast Michigan.
The Michigan Audubon Society is the state's oldest conservation
organization. MAS was founded in 1904 and currently owns and
maintains 19 sanctuaries in the upper and lower peninsulas.
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest
animal protection organization with over eight million members
and constituents, including more than 265,000 in Michigan.
The Fund for Animals uses education, legislation, litigation
and hands-on care to protect animals from cruelty.
The Songbird Protection Coalition was founded by a concerned
Michigan citizen to facilitate the efforts of numerous Michigan
citizens to protect Michigan's native songbirds.
The web address for the coalition is www.stopshootingdoves.org. Volunteers can register to join the campaign at this address, or call 517-321-DOVE.
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