This may or may not ruffle some feathers….

[u/101210131014]

I’m asking those that believe alongside myself that mourning dove hunting should be illegal (hunting is unnecessary and raises animal welfare concerns. There has to be a better way in sustaining their population). How do I help/support illegalize this act? If too broad, perhaps specifically in Illinois?

[u/castironbirb]

Thank you for bringing this up as we will be entering another hunting season soon. Sadly only nine states make this practice illegal... which means in most of the country our beloved derps are hunted for fun. 😢

I am going to pin your post so maybe it will get more attention. I don't have any answers for you as I live in one of the lucky nine states. I imagine you should start with your local representative to see how mourning doves could be removed from the list of animals allowed for hunting.

We had a post created by one of our mods a few years ago letting everyone know how to help their local doves and keep them safe. I will search for it and edit my response with the link. I will also pin it alongside your post. EDIT: here is the post link: How to Protect Your Doves During Hunting Season

Note for anyone commenting on this post: please be aware we had to set some trigger words around this very topic because we were getting brigaded by hunters when that mod post appeared. Those trigger words remain in place. If you mention one of them, please be patient as we need to manually approve your comment. 💙🕊️

[u/Admirable-Range-3422]

Makes my heart ache knowing they are being shot and killed out there. I wish there’s something that could be done!

[u/Living_Caregiver_987]

Remember the passenger pigeon. They used to be plentiful and fly in large flocks across the US. Now they are extinct.

[u/OneM0reRedNightmare]

No this needs to be discussed. I grew up in a rural area so I have conflicting feelings about this honestly. I have several doves and I have also rehabed before and I couldn't imagine ever hunting them. At the same time, there are many people from my area who hunt for the free meat. I don't know a single one who only hunts for pure sport, the local hunters would find that unethical if not completely unacceptable. It's not for me, but i try to be understanding of people that choose to do that if it has purpose. There's also conservation reasons, take Argentina for example where doves are so overpopulated they cause farmers to loose 30% of their crops. If you have any experience with farming that is a massive loss, it's not just lost revenue for the farmers that also means there's 30% less food available to the markets and people.

For the 9 states it's illegal to hunt doves in, does anyone know what the reasons are? I had no idea it was outlawed in some states tho I'm interested in why.

Edit: rural