Michigan's Mourning Dove Hunt: Back in the Hands of Voters, Not Hunting Groups |
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By Tanya Mulford
Mourning doves are by all accounts gentle, harmless birds. They are monogamous creatures who raise their young as a team, a quality that one might expect would garner them praise in these family-focused times. The birds certainly made an impression 100 years ago when the citizens of Michigan decided to protect these popular backyard visitors: In 1905, the state officially designated them "songbirds"—as opposed to game birds—and banned their hunting. More than 90 years later, the state's House of Representatives named the mourning dove Michigan's state bird of peace.
So why has the state suddenly embraced the blasting away of hundreds of thousands of these backyard birds?
The answer is that Michiganders did not embrace mourning dove hunting; the governor and a slight majority of the state legislature did. In June, after heavy lobbying by national hunting groups such as the National Rifle Association and the U.S. Sportsman's Alliance (which represents firearms and ammunition makers), the Michigan legislature narrowly passed and Governor Jennifer M. Granholm signed into law House Bill 5029, which redefined the mourning dove as a game bird and authorized hunts for three years.
Michigan's first mourning dove hunt in 99 years took place in the fall of 2004, when an estimated 3,000 hunters killed over 28,000 birds for little more than the thrill of the kill. The only silver lining in this dark cloud is the fact that, less than a year later in June, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers officially certified our petition to put a referendum on the November 2006 ballot. The referendum will allow voters to decide whether mourning dove hunting should be legal, and just as important, the certification itself puts the next two dove hunts on hold until the voters decide the issue.
A February 2004 poll would seem to suggest that mourning dove hunting in Michigan will be short-lived. The poll showed that 70% of Michigan voters opposed the hunting of these small birds.
Those poll results also implied something else: HB 5029 did not represent the will of the people. Its passage represented the will of certain hunting groups.
For years deep-pocketed national groups and state groups such as the Michigan Dove Hunters, the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, and more than nine other hunting groups created the Michigan Hunting Rights Campaign and took their demands to the state legislature. They were happy with the reception they received: "Sportsmen came and the legislators listened&that's the way it should work," said USSA Vice President for Government Affairs Rob Sexton.
A Betrayal of Trust
When Granholm signed HB 5029 into law, animal protection groups cried foul: "Governor Granholm has gone back on her word to veto dove hunting legislation, and has signed a death warrant for millions of gentle mourning doves in Michigan," said Fund for Animals President Michael Markarian, now also an executive vice president with The HSUS. "It is absolutely appalling that she has thumbed her nose at Michigan voters, and that she is personally responsible for allowing the bird of peace to be blasted into pieces."
HSUS CEO and President Wayne Pacelle spoke for many Michigan residents when he said, "We wanted Granholm to preserve the century-old policy of protecting doves not for any person's personal gain or profit, but simply because it's morally wrong for people to shoot and kill these gentle birds as a casual act of target shooting."
Live Target Practice
Even avid dove-hunting groups are at a loss to justify killing the birds on any grounds other than the enjoyment derived by hunters. No one argues that mourning doves are overpopulated or that they eat crops or ornamental plants. In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has observed population declines in some parts of the western United States, and some experts point out that doves aid gardeners by consuming weed seeds.
What's more, dove hunters rarely eat their small prey because the animals are hardly a viable human food source. Small at all times, doves are actually at their lightest body weight (around 3.5 ounces) during the fall hunting season. There simply isn't much meat on them. Just how little meat? A recipe for "dove with mushrooms" on the Michigan Dove Hunters site calls for a whopping 16 dove breasts. The site also cautions dove-eaters that they must "inspect carefully for shot" before preparing their kill. None too appetizing.
Despite the fact there are no management or sustenance justifications for killing these creatures, mourning doves are one of the most widely hunted birds in America—simply because many hunters think it's fun to shoot them. Mourning dove hunting is often treated like live target shooting (some hunters call doves "cheap skeet") because of the birds' spectacular mid-air movements. But dove shooters are known to have difficulty figuring out which bird is their target.
As the Michigan Department of Natural Resources pointed out, "Many protected species of birds are active in fields and rural areas during fall hunting seasons as they prepare for migration." According to Detroit Audubon Society President James Bull, the protected birds that hunters mistake for doves include kestrels, killdeer, and sharp-shinned hawks. Notes Bull, "President George W. Bush, while dove hunting with an experienced guide, shot an American kestrel and was fined for the error."
Poisoning the Environment
Because doves are relatively difficult to hit, hunters use an inordinate amount of toxic lead shot, which is still legal for dove hunting in many areas, even though it has been prohibited in waterfowl hunting since 1991. A joint U.S. Geological Service-U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study showed that hunters spent between five and eight shots per every bird hit. That lead was left behind to contaminate the environment, often farm fields. Similarly, a 2002 USFWS report summarized a recent study in which 728 hunters deposited 1,086,275 pellets per hectare of lead shot in four days of mourning dove hunting.
All that lead shot left in the field—and in the bodies of unretrieved doves—poses a real threat of poisoning when ingested by other wildlife feeding either on seeds and grains in the same field, or on the dove carcasses. Doves who survive the hunting season are themselves known to ingest spent lead shot while foraging, as found in a USGS-USFWS report.
Michigan Audubon Society President Peggy Ridgway warned, "The use of toxic lead shot to hunt doves creates yet another negative invasion to our already burdened environment. 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."
"Flying Cripples"
Studies estimating the "unretrieved loss" of mourning doves have found that more than 20% are not retrieved by hunters in a typical season. One 1977 report by G.H. Haas and published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin found that 21–47% of doves shot were unretrieved.
Though some of the birds left unretrieved are killed outright and simply left to rot, an unknown percentage may live for some time and die slowly from their wounds. Haas, for example followed 12 "flying cripples" (doves shot, apparently wounded, but continuing to fly for some distance) and found that five were dead and four flew away injured; he was not able to find the remaining three. This same author also found that no attempt was made to retrieve approximately 60% of the fallen doves and that retrieval attempts were almost never made for "flying cripples."
Let the People Decide
Not willing to sacrifice this bird of peace to the will of hunting and firearms interests, a coalition of local, state, and national groups has put the matter where it belongs: in the hands of Michigan voters. The Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban collected more than 275,000 signatures from registered Michigan voters, while concerned citizens from all over the country contributed more than $29,000 to the signature drive through an online donation campaign spearheaded by the Humane Society Legislative Fund. "The overwhelming statewide support for the petition drive shows that mainstream Michiganders want to restore the century-old ban on shooting doves," said Markarian.
The success of the petition drive—a 73% margin above the 159,000 signatures required—virtually guaranteed that the referendum was a shoe-in for the November 2006 ballot. The Michigan Board of State Canvassers certified the signatures on June 2, and now voters will get to decide whether to ban, once again, the killing of the state's bird of peace.
Until the vote, The Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban will continue to educate the public about why these gentle birds should be allowed to live in peace again.
The Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban
P.O. Box 81183
Lansing, Michigan 48908
517-321-DOVE
contact@stopshootingdoves.org
Tanya Mulford is the web editor for The HSUS's Wildlife and Habitat Protection section.
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Dove Hunting
Related Links
More Than 275,000 Signatures Collected to Allow Vote on Restoring Michigan's Century-Old Dove Shooting Ban
With Hunting Bill, Michigan's Granholm Ends a Century of Peace for Doves
State Wildlife Management: The Pervasive Influence of Hunters, Hunting, Culture, and Money
