Michigan - Vote YES on 3!

Well, one can hope.

cj, ruffed grouse are becoming close to becoming endangered here in Pa. If they enter into a non sustainable zone, then they will be protected. Hunting something into extinction hasnt been fashionable for about 8000 years..

Was dove hunting legal and then was that species later yanked? If so what was the reason? Doves are like pigeons in the barn . I do know that they have preferred flyways and habitat. IS MI one of those states that doves "fly around"?

Your example of "the domino theory" will only come true should the various states totally sever their relationship with the hunting fraternity. I doubt that will come about, since in Pa booze, driving, and hunting and fishing, are revenue generators.

That is the stated goal of HSUS.

How did HSUS get dove hunting pulled without the legislature as an active partner. Something just doesnt ring true here. What youre saying is

It was legal to hunt doves

Then it wasnt( In some way it was pulled?)

How did that happen without your knowledge so that you ahve to catch up with a referendum that doesnt involve the State Game Commission or the legislature/

Does Michigan elect its legislature?


Youre keeping something under wrap here.

Actually I am not.

Dove hunting ended in Michigan somewhere around 1905 when the legislature made doves the "state bird of peace". For that reason and that reason alone they were never classified as a game bird, though they are federally considered such.

Last year Governor Granholm, to everyone's amazement, signed into law a "test' dove season at the request of sportsmen. This upset the birdfeeder crowd and the next thing you know, HSUS is here collecting signatures to put the issue on the 2006 ballot. Michigan law is much like California in that if you can get enough signatures, you can put anything from wildlife management to sushi eating on the ballot. The fact that Michigan had no dove season or seasons while 39 others states did was an embarassment to those of us who consider hunting part of our heritage. If PA isn't the next target, CA will be - they have two dove seasons.

The poor birds have been able to live in peace for the past 100 years. Why do ya wanna go and kill 'em and maim 'em now? It's not that you can actually make a meal out of them.

That's like a thousand little tiny drumsticks, just to make a meal....

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061101/OPINION01/611010312/1008

Hunters slandered by dove protectors

Little truth in opponents' arguments against season

The Detroit News

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Dove hunting untruths

Mourning doves are peace symbols.

Doves are shot for target practice.

Hunters don't eat the birds.


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S o many whoppers are being told this political season by the big players in the election that the distortions by some of the lesser profile campaigns get overlooked.

But we can't allow the offensive claims made by opponents of a dove hunting season in Michigan to stand unchallenged.

The opposition to Proposal 3, which would allow Michigan to join most of the rest of the nation in establishing a hunting season for mourning doves, is unfairly disparaging of hunters and ridiculously sentimental about America's favorite game bird.

Almost nothing the opponents say in their advertising rings true.

In their latest ad, they trot out a couple who purport to be Michigan hunters laying out the now familiar arguments against dove hunting. But no real hunters would say the things this couple says.

Don't hunt doves, they urge, because doves aren't a nuisance; they aren't overpopulated; they're too small to make a meal; they're shot only for target practice, and they are song birds, not game birds.

Any legitimate hunter knows that the main objective of hunting is not population and nuisance control. If it were, there would be almost no bird hunting in Michigan. Duck, woodcock, grouse, turkey and pheasant are also not overpopulated, and are certainly not nuisances.

By these criteria, the only winged species open for hunting would be crows, pigeons and Canada geese.

It is a slander to say that doves are shot for target practice. Dove hunters are meticulous in collecting downed birds, and most doves that are killed are cleaned and eaten. A dove breast wrapped in bacon is as fine a wild game meal as can be asked for. Yes, it takes several to fill a plate, but the same could be said of bluegill, smelt and perch, yet no one is suggesting that fishing for these species be banned.

The song bird argument is the silliest. All birds make some kind of song; some may find the honking of a goose to be as melodic as the coo of the dove.

Doves are not endangered. The mourning dove is not the symbol of peace -- that is its cousin, the turtledove. And opening the hunting season would not mean fewer doves at backyard bird feeders.

Doves continue to thrive in the 40 states that allow dove hunting, and in fact benefit from habitat improvement projects paid for by hunters. The same would be true in Michigan, too, if hunting were permitted here.

On the evidence presented, Ive gotta go with cj on this point. The dove is as fine a meal as one can get . Only the breast is taken and usually served with a sausage "stuffing and browned in a fruit wine reduction or wrapped in bacon and served like shad roe with beans or asparagus. The governor in 1905 did a dumb thing to name the mourning dove(Zenaidura carolinensis) as a "symbol of peace". Those are turtle doves(Turtur-turtur), an entirely different genera.

I dont think PA will close the season on doves. Sorry I cant vote in MI but now that you cleared up the story , Im in favor of 3.

Do they even sell 9 shot in MI?

i have no problem at all with true game hunting. you kill it, you eat it.

i never got the feel for it myself, but it doesn't bother me if true sportsmen want to get their inner daniel boone on.

just play fair a little. try hunting squirrels with a 22 rather than a 410 or that 50 caliber. unless the goal is instant squirrel hash, that is....

I've killed many a squirrel with a .22, however, I cannot say I eat tree rat... rather I defend my property from the little homebreakers.

At the same time, a good friend of mine once said

Such a shame that Canada is so poorly represented on A2K. I firmly believe the north American hunting tradition is alive and well up north, despite their disarmament at the hands of their liberal city dwellers. After all, happiness is clubbing a seal with Paul McCartney's second wife's leg...

Actually, it's a shame the cause of hunting is so poorly represented on A2K. I firmly believe there's a case to be made for it, but your spoiled child antics make hunters look like a bunch of immature, over gunned, kill crazy wackos.

I've often wondered, in fact, whether you're some sort of plant by the anti-hunting crowd.

man, you just don't know what's good.

kentucky fried squirrel, henry county style, with cornbread and potato salad is a fine meal. might as well have a cobber while yer at it. any hope of colesteral salvation went down the tubes when the iron skillet came out.

Please visit t e d n u g e n t . c o m

I post under the same handle there. I assure you I am no plant.

Look at it this way, apparently I've hit a nerve, which is a good thing IMO.

cant forget Brunswick Stew, which MUST have squirrel meat.

I agree "smithin, the worst reps of hunting and outdoor traditions have usually been cj ,and OSD, when they sometimes creep the audience out.

This thread is actually quite mild.

Creeping out the audience when it comes to blood sports is just part of the program. People freaked years ago when Nugent released some of his early boar hunt videos. Now he's mainstream. It's just A2K's comfort level, and I'm happy making folks uncomfortable.

Being attacked politically has forced hunters "into the open", and I'm not going to sweeten the tea.

Well, if you consider making yourself a laughingstock to be "making folks uncomfortable" then I guess you've proved your point there, Sparky.

And by "proved your point" I mean done more harm for your erstwhile cause than good.