I have wondered about this for quite a while, why is dove hunting not allowed in any of the NE states? They seem to be abundant and it seems to me that they are hunted in most of the other states, right? Can anyone shed some light on this?

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Posts: 666

That's some scary sheeit right there, dude......

The darn things are all over the place.......I've asked myself the same question many times but I never answer.....

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Originally posted by Norton:
[QUOTE]Posts: 666

That's some scary sheeit right there, dude......

NE states were labelled the dove factories (nesting states) and hence dove hunting is not allowed from Maine down to Pennsylvania. Maryland on down south pretty much there is a dove hunting season in all Atlantic states.

I believe Michigan tried to fight the dove ban but the whole thing was so politicized and law suits filed by the damn bunny hugging public that they gave up. They even voted on it in one of the elections.

So it has more to do with politics than anything else. I am sure if a limited season was allowed with strict bag limits in all of Northeast, it will have negligible effect in the overall population of doves.

We have resident doves toughing it out all winter in Pennsylvania and staying here and raising babies...there is enough food for them here that they do not feel like migrating.

Look at this spoiled brat in my backyard, there is 12 inches of snow everywhere but he knows he will go to sleep well fed

If we could bash them I'd kill hundreds a season. There's no shortage here whatsoever.

Answer to why we can't hunt them here: because we live in a largely lefty, bunny-hugging liberal state, that's why.

I see them year round here too. I could feed my family on them if they were legal...

I'm not sure, but given the history, I would think that there must be (or must have been) some conservation-based reason.

They are all over the place.

Here's a fat one from my back yard that I shot - with a telephoto lens!



My wife and I have made up for the lack of it here by hunting them in Argentina!!!

anti-hunting orgs spent around $2M to stop dove hunting in MI. It's a bleeding heart thing. Dove's nest here in the South by the millions. I believe mortality rates are still 1 to 10 (1 out of 10 survive to adulthood). Otherwise they could literally block the sun out of the sky like the passenger pigeon once did. Our limit is 15 per day and we have 3 split seasons in TN. A fine game bird and delicious!
D.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
I'm not sure, but given the history, I would think that there must be (or must have been) some conservation-based reason.

They are all over the place.

Here's a fat one from my back yard that I shot - with a telephoto lens!



My wife and I have made up for the lack of it here by hunting them in Argentina!!!

I know you're a transplant, but c'mon Mike, you've been in the PDRM long enough to know that most any anti gun/hunting legislation/law is suspect. The last good law WRT MA hunting that was enacted was in 1647. The so-called Public Trust Doctrine.

"Moreover, the law specifically reserved for the public the right to continue to use private tidelands for three purposes-fishing, fowling, and navigation.

Scope of Public and Private Rights
Over the years, Massachusetts courts have ruled that the scope of activities on private tidelands covered by the reserved public rights of fishing, fowling, and navigation is broad, and includes all of their "natural derivatives."

For example: The right to fish includes the right to seek or take any fish, shellfish, or floating marine plants, from a vessel or on foot; The right to navigate includes the right to conduct any activity involving the movement of a boat, vessel, float, or other watercraft, as well as the transport of people and materials and related loading and unloading activity; and

The right to fowl includes the right to hunt birds for sport as well as sustenance. (The Massachusetts Attorney General takes the position that the right of fowling also includes other ways that birds can be "used," such as birdwatching, but also notes that this issue has not yet been addressed by the courts.)


See
http://www.mass.gov/czm/shorelinepublicaccess.htm



May God bless the insight, and the memory/souls of those men. Seriously.

It sounds like I should start a movement to get them legalized in NH. The political climate may never get better than right now...

I'm not sure where you would, but apparently there is a dove season in Rhode Island.

http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs...wild/pdf/huntabs.pdf

Ive been married to a Boston girl for 25 years and I still cant figuer out why Yankees do what they do...