California Doves Need Your Help Too - Stop Hunting

[TAWhatley]

> Help Stop the Slaughter of Doves in California
> Your letters needed to ensure bird of peace is no longer killed
>
> Each year more than 2 million mourning doves and nearly 70,000
> white-winged doves are slaughtered by hunters in California. A
> substantial number of birds are also crippled from gunshot wounds. In
> fact, more than 70 million mourning doves are killed or maimed across
> North America every year.
>
> Mourning doves are erratic fliers difficult to hit with a kill shot and
> too small to provide much of a meal. A number of studies show that more
> than one-third of doves shot are not retrieved by hunters. As a result,
> many doves lie crippled and suffer long, painful deaths.
>
> Although 11 states have banned dove hunting, it is still legal in
> California. Doves are lured to fields planted with safflower and
> sunflowers. Hunters gather each September, November, and December to
> shoot off round after round at the unsuspecting doves. As one hunter
> recently told an API staffer, "Dove hunting is easy. Even Granny can do
> it. Just pull your car over, get out, and start shooting." Such
> indiscriminate shooting can leave fields filled with dead and dying doves.
>
> A coalition of animal protection organizations, including the Animal
> Protection Institute (API), the Fund for Animals, and Humane Society of
> the United States, have sponsored AB 1190, a bill by California
> Assemblyman Joe Nation (D- San Rafael) to ban the hunting of mourning
> doves and white-winged doves.
>
> AB 1190 will remove mourning doves and white-winged doves from game bird
> status and make it illegal for any person to hunt doves. The bill would
> also help protect other species who scavenge on mourning doves. Because
> lead shot is used to shoot doves, raptors (including bald eagles,
> California condors, and golden eagles) who eat downed doves whose
> tissues are embedded with shot sometimes die as a result of secondary
> poisoning. Ingestion of spent lead shot is recognized as a significant
> problem due to the harmful toxic effects and high mortality rate among
> victims.
>
> You Can Help
>
> Write a letter to your assemblyperson. Urge him/her to support AB 1190
> to ban dove hunting. Also, please write to Assemblyman Nation to thank
> him for his leadership on this issue. Letters should be addressed to:
>
> The Honorable _______________ State Capitol Sacramento, CA 95814
>
> To find your legislator, go to
> www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset9text.htm or call the general
> information number at the California State Assembly at 916-319-2856.
>
> Please send a copy of your comments via email or mail to Brian Vincent
> (bvincent@api4animals.org) at API.
>
> Points you may wish to make in your letter:
>
> * Dove hunting is unnecessary, unethical, and inhumane.
> * More than 2 million mourning doves and nearly 70,000 white-wing
> doves are slaughtered every year in California.
> * A favorite among birdwatchers, doves are viewed as gentle
> backyard birds that symbolize peace and fidelity (mourning doves mate
> for life).
> * Doves do not cause nuisance problems or damage agricultural crops or
> livestock. They actually assist farmers by eating weed seeds.
>
> For more information, contact API's Brian Vincent
> (bvincent@api4animals.org) at 916-447-3085 x201 or Camilla Fox
> (cfoxapi@aol.com) at 415-945-9309.
>

[Wild Dove]

This is so sad.
Terry, is there any way a non-Californian can send a letter?
We recently had a Mourning Dove in at the centre with a broken wing...so tiny, so scared, yet so gentle...she made it back to the wild despite us.
I don't think I'll ever be able to understand this...
Wild Dove

[raynjudy]

Do you want to end it?

Marshal your strength--it must be collimated and coherent--and bring it to bear. That is the only way to end it. Use Wisconsin as a precedent. Via our family attorney, I found at the behest of John Wieneke, the lawyer that took on "The System". I made this a mission, for the best reason of all--Judy asked me to.

This is not a "dip in and dip out" proposition--it's not a hot tub issue! Go at it or don't.

What will you do?

--Ray