AUGUST 2005 - Stop Shooting Doves e-Newsletter Update:
In this issue - Recent Press:
1) Quick Update
2) EPIC-MRA Poll
3) Bay City Times Editorial
4) Keep the Campaign Going...
1) Quick Update
A
second ballot committee - calling itself
Citizens
for Wildlife Conservation Committee
- has been filed by out of state groups that aggressively promote the killing of
Michigan's official Bird of Peace. These are the fringe groups who cooed over
their use of political power to ram their unwanted dove-shooting agenda through
the legislature. Even an outdoor writer in Traverse City recently admitted that
the move represented "a political hijinks in Lansing."
Continuing the protection of the mourning dove is
supported by the majority of Michigan citizens, including the majority of
Michigan hunters.
Dove
shooting proponents cannot talk about the issue or even facts about mourning
doves -- they know their agenda is unpopular and simply can't win if they do.
But they'll spend upwards of 3 million talking about everything but doves -- to
try to "hijinks" Michigan voters next.
Eric Sharp's recent article in the Detroit Free Press
exemplifies the disrespect, distortions, and outright lies our opponents
shamelessly put forth about the grassroots campaign to protect the traditional
songbird status of mourning doves in Michigan.
See it for
yourself here
http://www.freep.com/sports/outdoors/outcol25e_20050825.htm
Our job as volunteer citizens today is to help in the
simply ways that each of us can - it truly is up to us as concerned citizens.
Please consider helping to bring in much needed endorsements from local
businesses or organizations. It's as easy as printing the attached endorsement
from (additional information available upon request) and then
simply asking!
Volunteers brought in more than 275,000 signatures during the coldest months of
the year - asking for endorsements from people you know in your community is a
piece of cake compared to that!
2)
EPIC-MRA Poll
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-27/112388886936221.xml&storylist=newsmichigan
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A recent poll indicates about 60 percent of those surveyed would vote or lean toward voting to reinstate a ban on mourning dove hunting in Michigan.
About 32 percent of those surveyed said they would vote or lean toward voting to allow dove hunting in the state. About 8 percent were undecided.
The statewide poll by EPIC/MRA of Lansing surveyed 600 likely voters from Aug. 2-9. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Last month (see it here http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw118563_20050718.htm), an EPIC/MRA poll with different, less informative wording showed a near even split on a proposal to reinstate a dove hunting ban in Michigan, with 18 percent undecided. The proposal appears to be headed for the November 2006 ballot.
This month's question provided more information to respondents, EPIC/MRA pollster Ed Sarpolus said. The poll question asked voters whether they would choose to allow dove hunting or prevent it. "It shows the more they know about the proposal, the more they want to go back to the old way," Sarpolus said. "The opponents of this have to educate the public."
The group backing the proposal is called the Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban, which is supported by The Humane Society of the United States. The group seeks to overturn a law that led to a trial mourning dove hunt in six Michigan counties last fall.
The law, at least temporarily, lifted a nearly century-old ban on mourning dove hunting in Michigan. But future trial hunts have been postponed pending the outcome of the vote.
Supporters say the mourning dove is a song bird that should be protected.
Opponents of the proposal include the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, which says the effort to reinstate the ban has been organized by groups that are against all hunting.
Dove hunt supporters say the state's trial hunts should continue to get an accurate measure of its effects on the dove population.
Dove hunting is allowed in 40 other states. In Michigan's trial hunt last autumn, about 3,000 hunters killed more than 28,000 doves.
3) Bay City Times -
Editorial
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1123254920275190.xml&coll=4
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.
4) Keep the Campaign
Going...
To Help Save
Michigan's Doves, please send donations to:
The
Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban (checks payable to)
PO Box 81183
Lansing, MI 48908
Donate by credit card using
PayPal
here (please include your mailing address)
http://stopshootingdoves.org/donate.html
THANK YOU
For more information and updates, please visit
http://www.StopShootingDoves.org
Paid for with regulated funds by the Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban, PO Box 81183, Lansing, MI 48908