Posted on 07/17/2005 12:27:02 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Hunting Heritage Defense Committee Opposes Michigan Dove Hunt Ban.
Howell, Michigan 7/15/05 – Each year, Michigan’s 1.7 million outdoor enthusiasts provide the state with significant revenue. These individuals enjoy various sports with their families, friends, and neighbors while protecting the environment through fees paid for licenses and memberships in conservation organizations as well as income to local economies.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources estimates that our natural resources annually attract more than 800,000 licensed hunters (15 million days in the field), nearly 2 million licensed anglers (25 million days fishing) and more than 900,000 registered watercraft (logging more than 13 million boat days). Michigan hunter dollars provide contributions to citizen services as well, without which Michigan’s economy would suffer serious losses.
HHDC is a grassroots ballot question committee formed to oppose the 2006 ballot initiative that would ban the hunting of doves in Michigan. Our mission is to defend Michigan’s hunting heritage from well-funded out-of-state special interest groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) who want to ban all hunting.
HSUS holds over $99,000,000 in assets, and operates not a single animal shelter. Instead, as current president Wayne Pacelle stated in 1990, "We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States ... We will take it species by species until all hunting is stopped in California. Then we will take it state by state.” Rather than caring for animals as is done on a local level by similarly named humane societies, HSUS devotes its funding to anti-outdoor legislation and ballot initiatives.
Dove hunters in Michigan are required to purchase a dove stamp. Half of the funds provided by this stamp are specifically dedicated to non-game habitat programs. While accurate hunting numbers for Michigan are not available as Legislation was approved on a limited basis in six counties in Michigan in September of 2004, by comparison, Texas generates revenues for its economy of $200 million per year from dove hunting. A similar amount is currently being spent in Michigan’s adjoining states where dove hunting has been a tradition for years.
As sportsmen and women across this state are coming to realize, the issue of whether or not we hunt doves has been drawn into the larger battle over whether we have the right to hunt at all. Anti-hunting groups worked most recently in Alaska in an attempt to outlaw bear hunting. However, they were soundly defeated by the grass roots efforts of the hunters, fishermen, and women of that state. These groups have now targeted the people of Michigan, our traditions and our economy.
The Hunting Heritage Defense Committee has one purpose: to educate and coordinate people interested in the issue. All of us will speak with one voice in telling these outside groups that the people of this state will uphold the long-standing traditions of hunting and fishing in Michigan.
To accomplish this we will be holding informational events coupled with voter registration drives across the state. We urge all groups as well as individual sportsmen and women to join the Hunting Heritage Defense Committee in preserving such an important part of Michigan’s heritage.
"Are they good with eggs?"
Only their own. They're careless with other birds' eggs.
The signature line of the quote though was telling. Peter Singer.
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