Media Coverage - Dove hunting ban should be put back
Published October 08, 2006. Editorial. The Muskegon Chronicle.
When last we checked on the issue of mourning dove hunting, it was June 2004. Gov. Jennifer Granholm was just about to cave in and sign a bill authorizing a trial dove-hunting season, which she subsequently did.
Since then, supporters of dove hunting have held a statewide petition drive, and now the question of establishing an annual hunting season for mourning doves in Michigan is coming before state voters as Proposal 3 on Nov. 7.
Doves have been off-limits to hunters for more than a century, and should remain so, but those who support the hunt want them to be classified as game birds, like partridge and woodcock and nearly 40 other species in our state.
That would be a stretch. For one thing, mourning doves are sought mainly for target practice -- clay pigeons with wings -- and where's the sport in that? Doves aren't "food" birds either; you'd have trouble covering a toast point with what was left of one.
Some hunters view this as a personal freedom issue, but the mourning dove hardly strikes us as the right bird on which to build a case for fewer restrictions on hunting in Michigan.
Hunters should test their shooting skills on real upland game birds and leave the doves to mourn, or whatever is they do, in peace. There's plenty of sporting stuff to hunt, including maybe cougars. Please vote "NO" ON PROPOSAL 3.
