October 1998

A vote for Issue 1 will ban dove hunting in Ohio. This has Ohio dove hunters, and there appears to be more than we ever imagined wanting to splatter the symbol of peace with a shotgun, in a well-funded campaign to defeat Issue 1.

Current Columbus School Board member and former Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director, Robert Teater, has lent his voice to the dove killers' commercials. When asked by the Freep if he actually ate the little guys, he insisted that they were quite tasty and that his wife, County Commissioner Dorothy Teater, had her own special recipe.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, after twirling the beanie copters on its leading bureaucrats, decided that dove hunting was a must. Of course, these are the political hacks appointed by Governor Voinovich that are also in favor of corporate chicken and hog farms. And who can forget the Governor's support for destroying Dysart Woods?

The organization, "Save the Doves," submitted more than 100,000 signatures to Secretary of State Bob Taft's Office in an effort to remove the mourning dove from the list of hunted species. "The hunters have 43 species to kill every year. We only became active when they went for a 44th," said Ritchie Laymon a spokesperson for Save the Doves. Last year, over 400,000 gentle doves were killed and crippled in Ohio-all in the name of fun.

Rick Story, from the Columbus-based Wildlife Legislative Fund of America, stated that the group has raised nearly $1 million of the $2.5 million dollars being raised to fight the Save The Doves ballot initiative. "As wasteful as it is to spend all this money on the campaign...it's nice every once in awhile to rub their noses in it," Story said.

The Save the Doves group has brought up charges that state taxpayers' money is being used to fund the anti-Issue 1 campaign. Watch for progress on that and remember that a "yes" vote on Issue 1 will save the doves.