Editor,
California Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael, has introduced legislation (AB1190) that would ban the hunting of mourning doves and white-winged doves. The measure is needed because hunters kill more than two million mourning doves and nearly 70,000 white-winged doves each year in California. A huge number of these birds are also crippled from gunshot wounds.
AB1190 would make it illegal for any person to kill mourning and white-winged doves. Although 11 states have banned dove hunting, the practice is still legal in California. Hunters lure doves to fields that are artificially planted with safflower and sunflowers, then gather each fall to shoot the birds. Doves are erratic fliers (which makes them difficult to hit with a kill shot) and are too small to provide much of a meal. According to a number of studies, hunters fail to retrieve over one-third of the doves they shoot. As a result, many doves lie wounded and suffer long, painful death.
The massive amounts of lead shots used in dove hunting can negatively impact the environment and other wildlife. Though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned the use of lead shot for waterfowl in 1991, it is still permitted for dove hunting. As a result, predatory birds who feed on doves carrying lead in their body tissues can be poisoned.
The state legislature should ban this senseless, inhumane sport, by supporting AB1190. Please write or call your legislator today.
Karen Hansten
Burlingame<
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