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TO STATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS: |
Fund for Animals Applauds Governor Tom Vilsack for Vetoing Dove Hunting Bill |
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DES MOINES, IOWA, Jan. 31 -/E-Wire/-- The Fund for Animals, a national animal protection organization with 200,000 members and supporters, many of whom live in Iowa, applauded Governor Tom Vilsack for vetoing legislation that would have opened the state's first sport hunting season on mourning doves since 1918. House File 43 passed the House and Senate by narrow margins, and Governor Vilsack vetoed the bill last night.
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According to Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The Fund for Animals, "Governor Vilsack clearly saw what some legislators did not: that an overwhelming majority of Iowa citizens do not support changing the law to permit the target shooting of these gentle backyard birds. We thank Governor Vilsack for his leadership in preserving Iowa's 83-year tradition of mourning dove protection."
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Mourning doves are not overpopulated, they don't cause nuisance problems, and they even help farmers by eating weed seeds on the ground. Studies in other states have shown that 20-30% of the doves shot by hunters are wounded and not retrieved. Even when hunters do collect the doves, their bodies yield only a tiny morsel of meat. The Fund for Animals pointed out that dove hunting provides no purpose other than target practice. Furthermore, federally protected birds such as the American kestrel are often mistaken for doves at a distance, and would have undoubtedly been shot by hunters if a dove hunting season was opened.
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A poll conducted last week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research found that Iowa voters overwhelmingly oppose the establishment of a mourning dove hunting season by nearly a three-to-one margin. The survey, sampling a total of 625 Iowa voters, revealed that 23% favor dove hunting, 62% oppose dove hunting, and 15% are undecided. The margin for error is plus or minus 4%. Every demographic group (men, women, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents) registered opposition to mourning dove hunting in Iowa.
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Added Markarian, "Governor Vilsack's veto and the Iowa public's overwhelming opposition to dove hunting should send a strong message to state legislators and sport hunting lobbyist organizations not to revisit this issue in the future."
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