Even biblical references were not enough to spare mourning doves from the possibility of becoming game birds in Iowa.
A day after the Iowa Senate approved Senate File 464 authorizing the state Natural Resources Commission to establish an open season for hunting mourning doves, the House voted 58-39 to send the bill to Gov. Terry Branstad, who personally thanked the House for passing the bill.
During an impromptu visit to the House chamber, Branstad recalled he was a state representative in 1973 when a similar bill came out of committee.
“I got more hate mail on that issue than anything else,” Branstad said, adding that he will sign the bill.
Opponents of dove hunting tried a number of tactics to protect the close relative of the common barn pigeon from hunters, including making it the state bird along with the goldfinch.
Noting a biblical reference to the dove as “the bird of peace,” Rep. Deb Berry, D-Waterloo, said they are “more of a backyard bird than a game bird.”
However, floor manager Rep. Rich Arnold, R-Russell, said 41 states — including all those around Iowa — treat the dove as a game bird.
Dove hunting will be good for hunters and for the economy, Arnold said. Dove hunting season could attract about 20,000 new hunters annually and create nearly $7 million in economic activity and about $423,000 a year in state revenue, he said.
Dove hunting might reverse the trend to fewer hunters, too, Arnold said. Last year, 13,000 fewer hunting licenses were sold in Iowa, largely due to a decline in pheasant numbers. Dove hunting would provide an opportunity for young Iowans to learn to hunt, he said. Older and non-ambulatory hunters could hunt from blinds without stalking game for miles, added Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield.
The process used to pass the bill drew criticism from opponents who said it short-circuited the legislative process and denied the public an opportunity to speak out on the legislation.
The House took up SF 130, which dealt with raccoon hunting. It replaced that language with the dove hunting language the Senate had passed a day earlier.
“It was sacrificed for the greater good,” said Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, the sponsor of SF 130.
The House then substituted SF 464 for SF 130, approved it and shipped it back to the Senate.
Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said the bill had bipartisan support, so “there was no reason to drag ourselves down for a weeklong discussion for something we have the support to do.”
The process raised eyebrows, but was not unprecedented, according to Senate majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.
“I don’t know that we like their process,” he said, “but we don’t sit in judgment of their rules and procedures. Whether we like it or not, the Constitution does not let us interfere in their process.”
On the way to approving the bill, representatives offered amendments to prohibit using lead shot, require dove hunters to buy migratory fowl stamps and prohibit dove hunting within a mile of a residence. All were rejected. Arnold said the Natural Resources Commission could establish those rules.
Voting on the bill did not fall along party lines. Ten Democrats joined 48 Republicans in voting for SF 130 while 10 Republicans voted against it.
Source: Sioux City Journal
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