IOWA ACTION ALERT

The well-funded national hunting groups have pledged to spend at least $100,000 in a legislative attempt to legalize mourning dove hunting in Iowa. Sport hunters already kill nearly 50 million mourning doves each year in the states that allow dove hunting. Adding another state to that list may mean another half million gentle birds killed for sport every year in the Hawkeye State.

Please contact your elected officials in Des Moines immediately. Ask your State Representative to OPPOSE H.F.2087, and ask your State Senator to OPPOSE S.F.2060. Tell your elected officials to oppose these bills and any other pieces of legislation that would allow the Department of Natural Resources to set a mourning dove hunting season. Contact them at:

The Honorable __________
State Capitol
Des Moines, Iowa 50319
Switchboard: (515) 281-5011

If you do not know who your State Representative and State Senator are, please call your local library, town or city hall, or League of Women Voters for assistance.

Also write letters to the editor of your local newspapers, speaking out in opposition to dove hunting. State legislators read their local newspapers as a barometer of public opinion, so letters to the editor are crucial. Contact us at (301) 585-2591 or fund4animals@fund.org if you need the address of your local newspaper or if you would like to receive a set of sample letters.

Here are a few points you may wish to make in your letters:

• Mourning doves are gentle birds that most Iowans enjoy seeing at backyard birdfeeders. Killing them for sport would be like killing robins or cardinals.

• Mourning doves are not overpopulated and they are not a nuisance to anyone. They actually help farmers by eating waste grains and seeds.

• The move to legalize dove hunting is being pushed by out-of-state hunting groups. Mourning doves have been protected for decades, and Iowans want it to stay that way.

• Studies show that more than 20 percent of mourning doves shot during hunting seasons are left crippled and unretrieved. That means that if Iowa hunters kill a half million doves during a hunting season, at least another 100,000 will be wounded and left to die slowly of their injuries.

| Return to Home Page |