Effort to kill dove season squashed

By T. W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter
An effort to squash a proposed mourning dove hunting season missed its mark during House floor debate April 29 on the omnibus natural resources and agricultural bill.
Minnesota has not had a mourning dove season for about 50 years.
Mourning doves, whose plaintive coo is familiar to both city and country dwellers, is a federally recognized migratory bird and widely hunted across the United States.
Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, said itís estimated that about 12 million mourning doves visit the state each year.
Hackbarth, chairman of the House environment and natural resources policy committee, said a dove season could put 50,000 hunters afield and prove a financial boon to Greater Minnesota.
Hackbarth sponsored the mourning dove season legislation in the House.
But an attempt to delete the mourning dove provision from the omnibus bill was made in the House.
Rep. Alice Seagren, R-Bloomington, proposed an amendment to kill the propose season.
ìFor a good reason,î said Seagren. ìThis is a beautiful bird,î she said.
Rep. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, endorsed Seagrenís amendment.
Sheís gotten as many calls and e-mails against the proposed mourning season than sheís received about any other issue, said Goodwin.
ìThereís no good reason for doing this,î said Goodwin, asking tongue-in-cheek whether someone can hunt mourning doves with concealed firearms.
Hackbarth continued to defend the proposed season.
The dove population will not decline over time by having a Minnesota hunting season, he explained.
ìThese birds are very good. Theyíre very tasty,î said Hackbarth.
Seagren countered by saying that since according to one dove recipe it takes 20-24 doves to serve six, 50,000 hunters would need to shoot a million mourning doves for every family to get just one meal.
Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, noted that the mourning dove has figured largely as a symbol of peace in Christian and Jewish faiths.
The idea of killing such a symbol ìshould really be appalling to a group that prays to God every day,î she said.
But Seagrenís amendment was voted down 53 to 70, and the season on the edible religious icon remained in the bill.
Sen. Pat Pariseau, R-Farmington, is carrying the mourning dove season bill in the Senate.

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