Each one of these articles are very important and I urge you to go to the US Sportsmen's Alliance to read the complete articles... just don't forget to come back to WomenHunters. If you are not a member of their Email Network then I also urge you join it. God Bless, Sue
Michigan Sportsmen Respond to Anti-Dove Hunting Event
(Detroit) – Michigan sportsmen are outraged at the fund raiser being held at the Detroit Zoo benefiting anti-hunting organizations in that state. Last week, the USSA alerted sportsman that the Michigan Humane Society was holding the event to help ban dove hunting in the wolverine state.
Since August 18, sportsmen have kept the Detroit Zoo staff busy with telephone calls and faxes to Zoo executives. “Faxes and calls have been pouring in from angry sportsmen,” said Patricia Mills, communications manager of the Detroit Zoological Society. All of Michigan’s sportsmen are urged to continue sending faxes to their state legislators, Governor Granholm, Detroit city council members, and the Detroit Zoo.
The fundraising event is scheduled for September 16. On the list of special guest speakers are Ron Kagan, director of the Detroit Zoo, Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Mike Markarian, executive vice president of the HSUS, the nation’s largest anti-hunting group.
Tickets for this event are advertised at $100 each and “all proceeds go directly to the [sic] help restore the dove shooting ban on mourning doves.”
The Detroit Zoo is both privately and publicly funded. As recently of May of this year, the state re-appropriated $4 million to the Detroit Zoological Society. Further, nearly $6 million in aid has been appropriated by the city of Detroit to be given to the zoo in 2007. Michigan sportsmen whose tax dollars and private donations have helped fund the zoo are outraged at the zoo’s tolerance of hosting an anti-hunting event.
“We want sportsmen to continue their onslaught of calls to the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan and private donors such as Daimler Chrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company, the General Motors Corporation and all who give to the Detroit Zoo,” said Rick Story U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance senior vice president. “Sportsmen must express their outrage at their support of an organization that uses public resources to take a side on such a contentious political issue.”
Take Action! Michigan sportsmen must contact the City of Detroit, their state legislators and the Detroit Zoo and explain to them that it is a outright attack on Michigan’s rich hunting heritage and a gross misuse of public resources for an agency of the City of Detroit to aid fundraising for anti-hunting efforts.
Letters should be sent to Ron Kagan, director of the Detroit Zoo at 8450 W. Ten Mile Rd., Royal Oak, MI 48068. He can be reached by telephone at (248) 398-0900, ext. 3118 and by fax at (248) 398-0504. Kwame Kilpatrick, the Mayor of Detroit can be contacted at Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, 2 Woodward Ave., Ste. 1126, Detroit, MI 48226 and by telephone at (313) 224-3400 and fax at (313) 224-4128. To find your Michigan legislators, use the Legislative Action Center at www.ussportsmen.org.
The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs. For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, www.ussportsmen.org.
