Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Cranes and Doves

Wisconsin's Mourning Dove Hunt Reports More Than 200,000 Birds Killed

In January, Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources estimated that the state’s recent mourning dove hunt resulted in about 202,000 of the birds being killed during the 60-day season.

A survey of hunters who bought small game hunting licenses found that 8 percent of hunters in the state participated in the mourning dove season, and that on average they killed 8 mourning doves apiece.

Keith Warnke, a game bird ecologist with the Wisconsin DNR, says that level of participation was roughly what the DNR expected and that the number of birds killed was sustainable. Warnke told the Associated Press,

I am confident that this level of harvest will not have a negative impact on the state’s dove population, and that the new dove hunting tradition will improve mourning dove knowledge and conservation in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Cranes and Doves had its arguments against the hunt heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The group argues that when the Wisconsin legislature declared the mourning dove the state’s official symbol of peace in 1971, that it conferred special protections on the bird which the DNR failed to take into account in allowing the hunting season.

Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General P. Philip Peterson, countered that, “There is no link between what the Legislature did then and the authority the DNR so clearly has to set a season for mourning doves.”

The Wisconsin State Supreme Court is expected to rule before July 1 on the challenge to the hunting season.

Sources:

State’s first hunt culls 202,000 mourning doves. Associated Press, January 22, 2004.

Dove hunting opponents argue case to Supreme Court. Amy Rinard, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 15, 2004.

Activists Fail to Stop Mourning Dove Hunt in Wisconsin

Two years ago, Wisconsin Citizens for Cranes and Doves began won a lawsuit that delayed a mourning dove hunt in Wisconsin. Activists won that battle, but they lost the war on Sept. 1 when the 60-day mourning dove seasons began.

The Humane Society of the United States and The Fund for Animals tried a last ditch appeal to Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, but Doyle’s spokesperson said in response that “The courts and the Legislature have already spoken on this issue.”

Hunters in Wisconsin will shoot an estimated 120,000-150,000 doves from September 1 through October 30.

Sources:

Mourning Doves: Doyle won’t halt dove hunt despite protests. Associated Press, August 29, 2003.

Mourning dove hunt begins in Wisconsin. Minnesota Public Radio, September 2, 2003.

Wisconsin Supreme Court to Take Up Mourning Dove Hunt Season

In March, a Circuit Court overturned a lower court injunction barring the start of a mourning dove season in Wisconsin scheduled to begin on September 1. The Wisconsin State Supreme Court recently agreed to review that ruling, however.

Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Cranes and Doves is also moving to obtain an injunction preventing the mourning dove hunt from going forward in the mean time. The group’s co-founder John Wienke told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that otherwise the hunt is likely to take place before the Supreme Court could schedule oral arguments in the case.

Of special interest beyond this issue is that Wisconsin voters approved a constitutional amendment in March 2003 guaranteeing the right to hunting, fishing and trapping. In agreeing to hear the case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court directed lawyers to address the ramifications of the new constitutional amendment on the mourning dove hunt issue.

Source:

Court will review dove hunting; Constitutional amendment may play into decision. Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 17, 2003.

Wisconsin Court Says Mourning Dove Hunt Can Proceed

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s injunction preventing that state’s mourning dove hunt in late March, meaning the hunt could finally get off the ground next Sept. 1.

The hunt was supposed to start in September 2001 but a group calling itself Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Cranes and Doves sued the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The lawsuit claimed that since the mourning dove was not on a list of game birds that the legislature has said may be hunted in Wisconsin, that the hunt was illegal.

A lower court ruled in the group’s favor, but Wisconsin’s 4th District Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in a 2-1 decision. The ruling said that although the mourning dove does not appear on the list of birds that may be hunted, the DNR nonetheless has the authority to schedule a hunting season for the mourning dove.

Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Cranes and Doves has not yet decided whether it will appeal the ruling to the State Supreme Court.

Source:

Court ruling gives dove hunt new wings. Bob Riepenhoff, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 30, 2003.

Appeals court ruling paves way for dove hunt. Meg Jones, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 28, 2003.