Media Coverage - Dove Debate: Delightful or Delicious?
Published November 6, 2006. By Michael Buck. Muskegon Chronicle
To Roger Tharp, secretary of the Muskegon County Nature Club, mourning doves are songbirds that are better for watching than for hunting.
Greg Meier, owner of Port City Pistol, 4250 Airline, sees doves as a game bird. With a piece of bacon, he says, they are "very tasty."
Michigan voters will decide which image they prefer in a referendum Tuesday on whether to restore a statewide ban on dove hunting, which stood for nearly a century until the Legislature lifted it in 2004.
Proposal 3 has ignited a fierce debate, with both sides accusing each other of misleading statements and ulterior motives.
Citizens for Wildlife Conservation (CWC), an umbrella group representing seven outdoor sporting organizations, contends those who oppose dove hunting want to stop all hunting.
The dove ban would be "low-hanging fruit, the first step" in that direction, said Sam Washington, executive director of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, a member of CWC. "If they're successful, they'll come back and try something else."
Untrue, said Julie Baker, director of The Committee to Keep Doves Protected, a coalition championing the dove ban. Animal protection groups such as the Humane Society are among its members but there also are avid hunters, she said.
"We respect Michigan's hunting heritage," Baker said. "I've had hunters tell me it's bad for their image to hunt mourning doves. They don't believe in it."
Her group says there's so little meat on doves' bones that it makes no sense to kill them for food. What dove hunters really want is to use them for target practice, Baker said.
Washington denied that. "I don't know of anyone who hunts an animal just for target practice," he said. "If I shoot a dozen doves, I'll eat a dozen doves -- and they are excellent table fare."
At least 4 million doves are believed to migrate from Michigan each year. The birds, which resemble slender pigeons, are most prevalent in the southern part of the state.
The Legislature in 2004 changed the dove's status from songbird to game bird, overturning a 1905 ban on hunting them.
Afterward, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission established a three-year trial hunt in six counties: Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph, Branch, Hillsdale and Lenawee. The commission said it would study the trial period's effects on the dove population before deciding whether to continue or expand the hunts.
An estimated 3,000 hunters killed more than 28,000 doves in fall 2004. But the trial period was suspended afterward, as opponents secured enough signatures to put the issue on this year's ballot.
Washington said he'd join the opposition if hunting doves would endanger their population. But the species is thriving, he said, while the number of hunters is in decline. Dove hunts would give the sport -- and Michigan's economy -- a boost, he said.
Meier, the local gun shop owner who is also a hunter, agrees with Washington that a dove ban could be the beginning of the end of hunting in Michigan, which he said is "a tradition."
"When these groups find that they can ban certain species by putting it on a ballot, they'll do it for others," he said.
Opponents say there's no good reason to shoot doves. Their population isn't excessive, they don't damage property or crops and hunters have more than 40 other game bird species in Michigan to choose from, Baker said. She denied dove hunts would help the economy, saying they could hurt the birdwatching industry.
"It's just senseless killing," she said. "Protecting songbirds like cardinals, blue jays, chickadees and mourning doves is part of Michigan's values and traditions."
Tharp, the Muskegon County Nature Club secretary who is also a birdwatcher, says he has no problem with hunting in general.
"Hunting is good -- for some species," he said.
An amateur taxidermist, Tharp says doves yield only about three tablespoons of meat, assuming the shot doesn't tear the bird apart.
"If you were making a meal of doves" you would need "about 10" of them, Tharp said, adding that too many birds would need to be killed if they were hunted for food.
