Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Tuesday, March 04, 2008

It’s time to stop war on bird of peace

By Jill Fritz / Guest view

Apart from the robin —whose arrival marks the coming of spring and the renewal of life — perhaps no bird is as beloved by Americans as the dove, symbol of peace and sign of hope. Robins are federally protected. They may not be hunted anywhere.

Doves are at the mercy of state laws, and for nearly 60 years, beginning in 1946, Minnesota’s doves were protected. Then, in 2004, Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a bill that thrust these gentle birds into the crosshairs of hunters.

There is no reason to permit doves to be shot, and there are some very good reasons to ban the shooting of doves. Consider the following:

Shooting doves serves no wildlife management purpose. No one has ever suggested that doves are overpopulated, damage property, crops or gardens, or harm the ecosystem.

Shooting doves poisons the environment. Dove shooters favor lead shot, believing it to be more accurate than other kinds of ammunition. Most of the shot falls to the ground, where it quickly accumulates and poisons the soil and the groundwater. Doves and other birds frequently ingest lead pellets, which poison them and the birds which prey upon them.

Shooting doves has a horrific wounding rate. Doves are fast flyers who can accelerate rapidly and change direction on a dime. This makes them a challenge to the shooter’s marksmanship, but it also leads to a wounding rate of 30 percent. Nearly one out of three doves shot dies a slow, agonizing, terrifying death from loss of blood, infection, dehydration, hunger or predation.

Most dove shooters do not shoot them for food; they shoot them for target practice. In some hunting circles, doves are known as “cheap skeet.”

Adult mourning doves have an average of two to three ounces of edible meat.

When this has been shredded by shotgun pellets, there is almost nothing left, especially since the shooting season occurs when doves are at their lightest weight.

Shooting doves leads to mistaken identity kills. American kestrels, sharp-shinned hawks and killdeer — all federally-protected species — are sometimes mistakenly shot by dove shooters. In 1994, even President George W. Bush was fined for shooting a killdeer, mistaking the bird for a dove.

Please tell your state legislators that you support Senate File 2329 and House File 2501 to put an end to “cheap skeet,” and to protect the bird of peace in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Fritz is the Minnesota/Wisconsin state director of the Humane Society of the U.S. She’s based in St. Paul.