LANSING, Mich. – Today, the Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban announced it is submitting more than 275,000 signatures of registered Michigan voters to qualify the dove shooting referendum for the November 2006 ballot. Nearly 5,000 Michigan volunteers canvassed the state this winter with petitions in response to a bill narrowly passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Jennifer Granholm last year, which permitted the shooting of doves in the state for the first time since 1905.
The overwhelming success of the petition drive—a 73% margin above the 159,000 signatures that must be certified as valid—should all but assure ballot placement for the dove question. The Michigan Elections Bureau is responsible for the count and certification of the signatures and will notify the group sometime over the next few months whether its referendum has made the ballot. Upon certification, the new dove hunting law will automatically be suspended, blocking dove hunts for 2005 and 2006 until Michigan voters weigh in on the highly controversial issue.
"The dove hunters brought this fight to Michigan after the state's gentle and inoffensive mourning doves were protected here for several generations," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president for The Humane Society of the United States. "The overwhelming statewide support for the petition drive shows that mainstream Michiganders want to restore the century-old ban on shooting doves. They don't want the state's official bird of peace blasted into pieces."
The coalition includes 26 members, including the Michigan Audubon Society, Detroit Audubon Society, Michigan Humane Society, and The Humane Society of the United States. For a complete list of organizations working to restore Michigan's dove shooting ban, go to www.stopshootingdoves.org/endorsements.html.
"We are very hopeful that last fall's mourning dove shoot was an aberration," said Cal Morgan, director of the Michigan Humane Society. "The wanton killing of these harmless birds simply goes against what many Michigan residents feel is proper wildlife management."
In 1905, the state officially designated mourning doves a songbird and banned their hunting. In 1998, the state's House of Representatives named these doves Michigan's official state bird of peace. Last June, the state legislature narrowly passed and the governor signed into law House Bill 5029, designating the doves a game bird and authorizing the first shooting season, which took place in the fall of 2004.
"This is good news not only for the doves but also for protected species of birds who share the skies and fields during the fall shooting season," said James Bull, Ph.D., former president of the Detroit Audubon Society. "Because hunters often have difficulty determining which bird is their target, others such as the American kestrel or sharp-shinned hawk are mistakenly shot."
"We look forward to getting this issue into the hands of Michigan voters and off the legislative books as it stands," said Jeanette Henderson, program director for the Michigan Audubon Society.
Many of Michigan's hunters do not support a mourning dove hunt. George Walker, a hunter from Charlotte, said, "I've hunted in Michigan all my life. With a wide variety of abundant game species, there is no justification to end the state's long-standing prohibition against dove hunting."
"The citizens of Michigan have worked very hard and just want the chance to restore and continue the protection of a traditional backyard songbird," stated Julie Baker, campaign director of the Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban. "This will give the majority a direct voice and the right to vote yes or no on the target shooting of doves in their backyard communities."
The Michigan Humane Society is a private, nonprofit organization serving the animals and people of metro Detroit and beyond since 1877.
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 nearly nine million members and constituents, including more than 280,000 in Michigan.
Michigan citizens can find out more about the campaign by calling 517-321-DOVE or on the web at www.stopshootingdoves.org.
