I would like to ask that you post my comments on dove hunting.  Our 
local chapter in Cedar Falls has sent out several anti dove hunting 
emails.  I tried to contribute tot he discussion with an alternate view, 
but that was censored since they claimed it was contrary to the Iowa 
Sierra Club's "official position."  In the past I have posted  thoughts 
to this list serve that were controversial and may run contrary to the 
emotions of many in the Sierra Club, but they were not similarly 
censored.  Please post the following:

Hunting is an activity that good people have different feelings about.  
For all the "facts" either side might offer, they are largely nonsense 
and backed by an underlying emotional feeling.  In what I've read, many 
of the assertions about doves and hunting are not true.
--In the Birders Handbook, it says they form occasional pair bonds, they 
are not mated for life.  Soon at my feeder I will again see males 
approach many females.  --They are not the dove of peace, that dove is 
white and lives in Eurasia. These are mourning doves.  If you shoot a 
dove war does not break out all over the world.  The white dove is a 
symbol of peace. Similarly, burning our flag, the symbol of our country, 
does not destroy our country.
  --Hunters do not shoot them for target practice, every state in the 
Union says you legally have to retrieve and consume what you shoot.  
Wastage of meat is not illegal.
--There is some evidence that doves at our feeders in the city are 
different populations from those doves hunted in the countryside.  That 
is, they either stay in the city or in the country.
--In most of Iowa dove hunting is a moot point.  I have spent untold 
hours in the fields of northeast Iowa and there simply are not enough 
birds to hunt.  Perhaps in western Iowa there are greater flights.
--Doves are hunted on their southern migration from Minnesota and now 
all states southward, and it does not and will not harm the population.

You might argue that we don't need to shoot doves, but then we could 
also argue that you don't need to see them at your feeder either.  
Please remember the distinction between wants and needs.   Note:  I love 
seeing doves at my feeder.  Although it may be hard for nonhunters to 
realize, us hunters see the same beauty in nature that you do.  I marvel 
at the feathering on a pheasant or dove, whether it is through my 
binoculars or in my hand.

Whey do I hunt and have the feelings that I do?  When I was 4 or 5 my 
dad had me shooting a 22 rifle.  There must be a higher place in heaven 
for a dad that takes a noisy, squirmy 6 or 7 yr old son out hunting 
squirrels, pheasant and deer.  So, from my youngest memories it was ok 
to hunt.

I have a factual argument on why doves should be hunted in Iowa--as 
above it won't matter to many.  The vast majority of money that is used 
for conservation of fish and wildlife in Iowa comes from hunting and 
fishing licenses and the taxes on items used by hunters and fisherman.  
For the cost of the license, I pay around $120 each year for my hunting 
licenses.  For taxes, there is the Pitman-Robertson tax on guns, fishing 
poles, ammunition, etc.  That contrast with the extreme dirth of money 
that nonhunters contribute to the DNR for land acquisition and wildlife 
programs.  Few Iowans contribute to the nongame wildlife checkoff on our 
tax forms.  Note:  I always contribute to the nongame check off.  So, I 
would argue that hunters should be allowed the reward of dove hunting 
for their massive contributions to conservation in the state.

Just a humorous dove hunting story.  When I moved to Kansas for grad 
school I went out dove hunting and mentioned it to my dad.  He sent a 
recipe for dove stroganoff that started, take the meat from 20 doves.  
In three years of dove hunting I got three doves.  I actually hit more 
with my car every year than I ever did with a shotgun.  I never made 
dove stroganoff.

Lanny Schwartz

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