Media Coverage - State Proposals - Our View
Published November 3, 2006. Editorial Excerpt. Manistee News Advocate
Michigan voters will be asked on Tuesday to cast their ballot on five separate State proposals. Here's how the News Advocate editorial team voted:
A referendum on Public Act 160 of 2004 - an act to allow the establishment of a hunting season for mourning doves.
This new act would authorize the Natural Resources Commission to establish a hunting season for mourning doves; require a mourning dove hunter to have a small game license and a $2 mourning dove stamp; stipulate that revenue from the stamp must be split between the Game and Fish Protection Fund; and, require that the Department of Natural Resources to address responsible mourning dove hunting, management practices for the propagation of mourning doves and participation in mourning dove hunting by youth, the elderly and the disabled, in the department's annual hunting guide.
NO, the News Advocate editorial team does not endorse this referendum. Because mourning doves would be shot mainly for "target practice" and not for food, and because these songbirds are not considered to be harmful to humans, property or crops, there seems to be no legitimate argument to hunt these birds.
