The Columbus Free Press

Letter to the Editor - Sep 30, 1997

Kill Your Turkey or Pay Someone Else To

I have had the opportunity to talk with someone from Save the Dove Foundation (SDF) on the phone for about 45 minutes. It was an interesting conversation. I was up front with her by immediately explaining to her that I am a hunter, but have yet to hunt doves even though the season was on for a few years now. I explained that I am not interested in dove for dinner, but at the same time I have never tasted it. I asked her why she wanted to stop the hunting. She explained that the dove had not done anything to the hunters and that they are song birds. I explained that the dove doesn't sing, it coo's and that it is and has been a game bird in the USA, Canada and Europe for centuries and has yet to be threatened. She took awhile then said they want to stop the senseless slaughter and target practice of the doves because they are left to die on the ground. I asked her where she got her information and she said "a lady I know, saw hunters shooting doves off the power lines while hunting." As I probed, she later admitted that it was children with a BB gun in a housing development-type neighborhood, and that the supposed person whom saw this did not call the authorities (police or wildlife officer) or take a simple picture of the incident after the fact. I then asked her if she thought she was in the right by telling everyone that it was hunters instead of children poaching, which is truly what that would be if it truly happened. She then told me " I don't care if it's true or not. If it will get my point across, I'll use it. I just want to save the doves."

To all the readers out there, I still haven't shot a dove, but this SDF person ruined their credibility with me, and I make it a point to tell people whenever the discussion comes up, like on the Internet where I found the Columbus Free Press.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Mourning Dove is the most abundant game bird in North America. It has a mortality rate of 75% annually and has not changed since the open season was re-opened in Ohio. Thus, the claim of hunters endangering the Mourning Dove is a false claim as with any other animal in North America. I'm sure you have heard or read about the overpopulation of deer in Ohio right? That's called CONSERVATION. Conservation is something that was started by hunters years ago to ensure the continued growth of species and to protect the habitat. Now, if you want to be mad at someone, be mad at the Save the Dove people for stretching the truth to fit their stories the way they want them to sound, not at the hunters. Better yet don't be mad at anyone, because it's not healthy. I just hope that the next time anyone says they don't like hunters because they kill cute little harmless animals, they think of the rabies epidemic from New Jersey to Ohio while they are throwing away all that meat they have in their freezers. I have never met a hunter who killed an animal just for the sake of killing it. Every hunter I have had the honor to meet, has made the kill for the food, whether deer, turkey, boar, bear, pheasant, quail, dove, or any of the other game out there. It is a pleasure to go to the store and pay for someone else to kill, gut, pluck and wrap your Thanksgiving turkey, if that's what you want. I would rather pay for the satisfaction of doing it myself as all other hunters do. The trouble is that the turkey is usually gone before Thanksgiving arrives. Think about this letter when you sit down to your family feast. I wish you all well -- yes, even the SDF people.

Jim Trisket
6008 West Avenue
Ashtabula OH 44004
216-992-0845
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