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Tasty bird or tweety bird? Michigan voters will decide

Friday, August 5, 2005

An experiment in dove hunting in Michigan is sidelined until voters have their say.

Good.

The first dove-hunting season last year in six southern Michigan counties was the result of some particularly stinky politics in Lansing.

Public opinion was clearly split on the issue in June 2004. The Michigan Legislature approved, and Gov. Granholm - who had pledged to oppose dove hunting - signed a measure a year ago allowing the Natural Resources Commission to add mourning doves to the list of state game birds.

Despite a howling public debate over whether Michigan should allow this Southern sport to cross our northerners' border, about 3,000 hunters here shot 28,000 doves last year.

This is an issue that remains unresolved.

A poll taken this past June showed 42 percent of likely voters opposed or leaning against dove hunting; 40 percent in favor or tending that way; 18 percent undecided.

It begs for a public vote.

And it will get one.

Until that happens, in November 2006, the three-year dove-hunting experiment in Michigan is on hold.

One person's game bird is another's backyard songbird.

That's the dove-hunting issue in a nutshell.

The people of Michigan will decide whether the dove is a tasty bird or a tweety bird.