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There is no hunting season for mute swans or native swans in NY, but there is in some other states. The term "waterfowl" includes ducks, geese, and swans. Other water birds such as rails are not "waterfowl", but swans certainly are. And they are good eating too.... Here is a recipe and notice we have created another website: http://thefoodcentrichunter.weebly.com/swan-leg-choucroute.html

Here is a map depicting the distribution of signatures as of November 28, 2015. Also attached for comparison is the distribution map up to September 18, 2015. When we published the September 18, 2015 map, we called everyone's attention to the "bald spots". As you can see there has been a response and improvement, however, certain areas are still lagging. Of course, some of the bald spots cover the Adirondack and Catskill Parks, and other areas where few or no people live. Even prior to September 18, 2015, we stepped up efforts in the Lower Hudson Valley, NYC, and Long Island. These regions carry the most weight in the NY State Assembly, and cooperation form Assembly members in those regions is important to the success of this initiative. As evinced on the map, the response in these regions has been very good! We still have a ways to go and we urge everyone to maintain all the stamina they can muster and keep pushing!

Check it out: http://thefoodcentrichunter.weebly.com/swan-leg-choucroute.html

The information taught in this free course will be very valuable in understanding the complex layers of science, politics, and controversies inherent to setting hunting policy. NY Dove Hunting recommends and hopes our members take advantage of this free course. Remember this is a free course without a grade, so like anything else, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. https://www.coursera.org/course/perceptivehunting

http://nydovehunting.weebly.com/governor-cuomo-vetoes-anti-dec-mute-swan-proposal.html Read story here: http://nydovehunting.weebly.com/governor-cuomo-vetoes-anti-dec-mute-swan-proposal.html

Today is Monday, December 15. Governor Cuomo has until Wednesday December 17, presumably until midnight, to act on the anti DEC legislation out of Queens. The legislation is on the governor’s desk, right next to NY Dove Hunting’s petition asking him to VETO it. NY Dove Hunting has reported and informed on this issue for a solid five months. In the future, we need all to pay better attention to what we promulgate and mobilize faster. However, there still is three days. Let’s test how organized we are and our ability to mobilize. One hundred emails / phone calls to the governor’s office each of those three days, up to and including Wednseday. Three hundred contacts POLITELY asking Governor Cuomo to VETO this legislation. NYDH has outlined many useful “talking points” to use in constructing a message about this legislation. At this stage in the game, we are not going to dredge it all up, but it is published online. Some of the lesser used material centers around the need to manage wildlife across government borders. Any Governor with presidential ambitions might be behooved to consider how conservation-minded United States citizens who do not live in Brooklyn and Queens might view this legislation mostly driven out of two boroughs of NYC. Many persons contacting the Governor about this legislation used analogies with snake heads and feral swine. However, the Governor lives in Long Island, essentially NYC. Therefore, he may relate better to Norway rats, black rats, house mice, Pigeons (which are really “rock doves” another Bird of Peace you know); English or house sparrows, and European starlings. All of these came here oversees in small numbers. We might throw in the Quaker parrot or monk parakeet, which have established colonies in “ Tony Avella County; ” however, there currently is also legislation pending which will reclassify Quaker parrots from unprotected wildlife to protected bird. That’s another chapter and another challenge coming up. There really is no need to get into detail at this stage, unless you feel compelled to. A simple, polite contact, perhaps using one or two talking points, or merely saying that you desire the legislation is VETOED is sufficient. Does your rod and gun meet tomorrow? Are you bringing a petition and/or form letters and pressing everyone to engage? Are you on social media and / or contacting your email contacts about this? As stated, after five solid months of promulgating this, the response was not satisfactory. In the same time, the antis generate tens of thousands of petition signatures and managed to bring this through the legislature. Prior to those five months, the DEC held a public review phase, during which we urged the sporting community to engage. The antis were extremely active in the public review of the DEC’s mute swan strategy, while most sportsmen never even heard of a mute swan… The next MODO bill (mourning dove) must be fully engaged. One of the excuses of Senator Grisanti (who was voted out this election ) was that he and other lawmakers heard from plenty of people opposed to dove hunting, and this was the only contact he and others had in support of it. Some of this falls on the erroneous belief that 1) Pro hunting legislation can escape the radar of anti hunting organizations, it will not however. 2) Failure to understand that environmental conservation regulations will almost always be subject to a public review phase, and that public review phase will be advertised. Speaking of Grisanti, his departure opens the door for a new Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman. The Assembly Cahir position of the same committee is also vacated by the retirement of Robert Sweeney. The new appointments will be interesting. The senate version of the mute swan bill was sponsored by Tony Avella, who is on the Senate En-Con Committee. The assembly version of the mute swan bill was sponsored by Cyronowitz, who is on the Assembly En-Con Committee. This is not suggesting that these two lawmakers will be appointed to chair the committee in their respective houses, but it is a possibility. The En-Con chairpersons are the gate keepers to all DEC related legislation. They decide if it moves forward and also if it expires in what they call the “suspense file”…

http://nydovehunting.weebly.com/new-insights-into-the-mute-swan-issue.html

Assemblyman Lalor is hosting a clay shooting event locally. Please support his campaign, thank him for being one of the 25 out of 250 lawmakers who voted appropriately on the DEC/ mute swan controversy, as well as the safe act, and ask for his support for a mourning dove hunting season after the smoke clears after November's election. And vote for him in November! http://secure.campaigner.com/Campaigner/Public/t.show?7bwxz--3qihk-ydbvlc4&_v=2

Tony Avella's Anti- DEC mute swan bill (S-06589A and A-08790-A) passed both houses today and will be sent to the governor. All we can do is email Governor Andrew Cuomo and request he veto's the mute swan bills because the DEC knows more about managing wildlife than the humane society. This having passed both houses is now in the hands of the senate which can deliver it to the governor any time they feel. The governor would then have 10 days to either sign it into law or veto it. As of just now, the senate still has it. We need to IMMEDIATELY contact the governor and urge him to veto this proposal. This bill was expedited through the legislative process and finalized the very day before they all break for the year. The 17 sponsors in the Assembly and the 5 sponsors in the Senate made sure they completed this political favor for the animal rights organizations that endorse them before breaking until the fall!

Assemblyman Lalor is hosting a clay shooting event in Dutchess County. Please support his campaign, thank him for being one of the 25 out of 250 lawmakers who voted appropriately on the DEC/ mute swan controversy, as well as the safe act, and ask for his support for a mourning dove hunting season after the smoke clears after November's election. And vote for him in November! http://secure.campaigner.com/Campaigner/Public/t.show?7bwxz--3qihk-ydbvlc4&_v=2

https://twitter.com/nydoveHunting Use hash-tag: #NYDoveHunting

Sign the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/832/485/616/veto-s-065889-a-and-a-08790-a/ Mute swans overgraze submerged aquatic vegetation, more impacts of mute swans: http://nydovehunting.weebly.com/mute-swans.html

The organization with the longstanding National Initiative to Ban Mourning Dove Hunting and National Initiative to Ban Pheasant Stocking in trouble - AGAIN! http://kycir.org/2014/07/17/how-a-congressman-his-wife-and-a-lobbyist-mixed-politics-personal-finances/

Sign the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/832/485/616/veto-s-065889-a-and-a-08790-a/ To learn more about the issues with mute swans: http://nydovehunting.weebly.com/mute-swans.html

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/06/24/voters-head-to-the-polls-to-cast-ballots-in-long-island-primaries/ http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/06/24/rangel-espaillat-face-off-in-primary-election/

Mourning doves are the number one game animal in the USA. Despite this, there are eight lower contiguous states that do not allow dove hunting. Dove legislation has been introduced in NY since at least 1990, possibly longer. According to the DEC’s website a number of dove bills have been introduced over the years; however not a single dove bill has ever been moved forward for vote. Based on the responses the DEC received to three dove hunting -related questions included as part of a larger survey of small game hunters; the DEC speculates that NY hunters do not have experience with dove hunting and therefore have not generated enough political support for dove hunting. Lawmakers offer a similar perspective which resonates with that of the DEC. According to one high ranking state senator his office receives many letters and/or petitions opposing dove hunting and very seldom hears from anyone who supports dove hunting. This same senator was convinced by anti-hunters who have contacted him, that doves were not edible. We have created an online presence using email newsletters, a website, two Facebook pages, a YouTube channel, and two Google Plus pages. The purpose of these online presences is to inform policy makers, build political support for dove hunting, engage & organize aspiring dove hunters and encourage ethical hunting practices, attitudes and behaviors. The link to the NY Dove Hunting website is www.NYDoveHunting.weebly.com. From there; you can go to our Facebook, YouTube and Google Plus pages. A focused and factually correct response from sportsmen to lawmakers, newspapers and the DEC can drive the establishment of a mourning dove hunting season. Our online articles provide talking points so that sportsmen can address the controversy surrounding dove hunting in a focused and factually accurate manner. NY Dove Hunting also aims to interest hunters and aspiring hunters in dove hunting. NY Dove Hunting also functions to organize, engage and keep hunters informed about dove hunting initiatives. To accomplish these functions, we need sportsmen to join our network by liking our Facebook pages and subscribing to our YouTube Channel.

We just launched a you tube channel. Please subscribe and share widely. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6A4K7i7Ur9AnH20PweuZsg

Please click on the link below and watch the propaganda video against dove hunting created by an anti hunting group modeled after the HSUS campaign against dove hunting. The HSUS has used a short list of talking points to successfully block dove hunting throughout the United States for many years. In 2003 the state of Michigan established a dove hunting season (with the help of Ted Nugent an avid dove hunter). In 2006 the HSUS repealed the season by summarizing their website page devoted to anti dove hunting into this childish cartoon. The HSUS spent millions of dollars airing this video in segments on Michigan public television in the months leading up to the general election on which a referendum to ban dove hunting was put on the ballot by a petition the HSUS initiated. Luckily NY is not a "referendum state"; however the arguments made against dove hunting in this video, which are the same as the ones on the HSUS website, have been the exact ones they have succeeded with nationwide many times. These arguments have been used and will again be used to influence public opinion and thereby politicians by blasting them in news media, public comment, and to letters to politicians, local newspapers, and the DEC. Sportsmen can redirect public opinion with the correct response to these arguments. However the operant word is "correct". If response from the sporting community must be factually correct. Those facts can be found on NY Dove Hunting's website, face book page, and You Tube Channel. Every premise against dove hunting set forth by the HSUS and this video commercial have been addressed in NY Dove Hunting's online sites. If sportsmen do not bother to respond to editorials and such, or respond incorrectly, public opinion will be influenced against dove hunting. http://youtu.be/4jt6ebPd54U

Hopefully this PDF attachment will work. This flyer can be printed out and put at hunting clubs, sporting good stores, especially license agents. Please do this, there is still many people we are not reaching. Until we get the Outdoor Writers Association and the NY Outdoor Writers Association to work with us, this is going to be an uphill battle. Until then, use what tools are available.

Here is another page we created to debunk the claims that hunters do not eat doves, waterfowl and game in general. It also has some pretty good recipes and blurbs related to cleaning, storing, and otherwise processing game birds. It has been slow, but as the page grows we will publish articles more frequently. Also: some FB pages do not use the 'notes' section. We do use the notes section, so click on it for more articles, that applies to our other pages as well. Also, if you are going to help in the push for a dove hunting season, and the issue of eating doves is raised, refer them to this FB page as well as our YT Channel. All of our links are in my profile on this site. Please subscribe to all of them and recommend them among your network of hunting friends as well as to policy makers. Cooking Doves and other Game Birds Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CookingDovesOtherGamebirds

http://youtu.be/T_vGhylryWM

https://www.soils.org/publications/nse/articles/42/1/185/

We have butted heads with sportsmen's organizations and individuals who represent them, about the importance of working with conservation organizations to establish a mourning dove hunting season. Ironically, it was both research funded by these same conservation organizations and testimony by them at the recent budget hearing that is (thee) reason the deer hunters got their beloved crossbow bill passed. Efficient killing of deer fits in with the conservationist's agenda, but in regards to dove hunting they have some concerns centering around target identification and lead ammunition. We have told the big NY sportsmen's organizations that these groups are correct and basically that "NRA Biology" was wrong. We told them it was essential to compromise, but they refused to work with us, putting it lightly. Next thing we know, all of a sudden these sporting organizations adopted position statements to establish a dove season and CFAB is according to their own reporting is " working on a mourning dove management plan". Fine and dandy except we are lost as to what they are going to do with their management plan, they are not DEC biologists or even biologists... We also are glad to see the NYS Conservation Council resolving to establish a dove season. We are not objecting to their "help" or trying to be "credited" - however it is apparent they are concerned someone else might get "credited" with accomplishing what they have failed to do after more than 20 years of trying. However we cannot work with them and not sure if we ever will be able to. So we for now will continue to operate independently of them. One of the things we are asking our network, or members if you prefer, is to look at the following links, particularly Page 4 of the Audubon testimony and Page 7 of the Nature Conservancy testimony, both pages referring to the recent crossbow proposal. It is also useful to read the entire testimony to get a feel for what these organizations are. We need our people on the same page as the conservationists and the first step is to show that conservationists are not our enemy, these documents pertaining to crossbows show that quite well. Here are the links: http://www.nysenate.gov/files/pdfs/Testimony%20Audubon%20New%20York.pdf http://www.nysenate.gov/files/pdfs/Testimony%20The%20Nature%20Conservancy.pdf

On the DEC’s social media today Jeffrey A Frick Will you just kill them like you want to kill the swans? Lynn Tricia Its called birth control on the population Remy Vicious so do mute swans. please desist with your cruel & unnecessary proposal to kill them. they can be controlled by spaying they needn't be "culled" they have been here hundreds of years with minimal impact & interact peacefully with other waterfowl like canadian geese & mallard ducks. i have lived by or in the brooklyn waterways all my life. swans do not tread on muddy marsh grasses they're too heavy to do so. conserve our wildlife do not destroy it! the overwhelming preponderance of park visitors are there to enjoy nature & wildlife & are not hunters. do not pander merely to hunters. there isn't sufficient evidence that your plan to "cull" all mute swans fron nys by 2025 will be in any way beneficial to our waterways. it certainly will not be a boon to park tourism! Christian Di Lalla PREPARE FOR CIVIL WAR IF YOU KILL SWANS 6 people like this. James R. Sullivan As wildlife Conservationist i am very upset they want to kill the sawns on long island. we need to stop killing wildlife in the state of new york. it seems like all we talk about is killing wildlife. NYS picks a Animal they do not want in new york state and than we go and create hunting season 5 people like this. Bob Rose Invasive species such as the MUTE swans and the wild pigs that are now part of our landscape, ruin habitat and are in direct competition with our native species. To the folks that are posting against this- are you aware there are actually d...ifferent species of swans in North America? NY is the only state in the Eastern flyway that has not met the goal of the Mute swan population reduction. Before you dig you heels in with an emotional response, I encourage you to read DEC's 11 page report.See More Diane Prokop Chatterton I heard from Channel 12 News that you are going to shoot the swans on long island. Instead of doing this terrible act, why don't you thin out their eggs. As far as these beautiful swans attaching anyone, I have been to these parks many ti...mes and I have never ever seen these birds attaching anyone. I do wildlife photography and go to these parks a lot. When people bring their dogs to the park, I've seen their dogs attack these birds all the time but does that mean we are going to put down these dogs, of course not. Birth control is more the answer and not a massive killing of a beautiful swan.See More 9 people like this. Carla Jean Page SHAME ON YOU FOR MURDERING SWANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MURDERERS!!!!!!!! 5 people like this. Adam Silber this agency is exactley whats wrong with governement. does nothing but kill kill kill Jennifer Lysogorski likes this. Ryan Reading There crooked as a 2 dollar bill Walter C. PlumeKilling animals like swans is not managing them!!!! You need to be dismantled!!!! The foxes are guarding the hen house. Shame on you!!!!!!!!! Sue Miller likes this. Amazon CrackerI think the planned massacre of the mute swans is horrifying! 2 people like this. Joan Patricia Steinacher-Napolitano totally agree. January 17 at 6:24pm · Like · 1 Yvonne Kleine I do believe the Lord God is weeping at our constant brutality and folly. This is animal cruelty of the vilest sort. · Like · 2 Sue MillerThe killing of Mute swans across America is one of the most despicable hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American tax payer. To even consider spending tax payers hard earned dollars on this in the worst economy is unacceptable. This killing of... an ENTIRE SPECIES is based upon monetary gain & complete disregard for sound environmental practices. The Killing or proposal to kill Mute swans is taking place in New York, Michigan, Maryland, N.J. & other states. The Mute swans are currently being killed because there is no "Trophy Waterfowl" for hunters .The excuses for killing Mute swans is that they 2 people like this.

Litmus Test? A real litmus test is using a piece if litmus paper to test the ph of a substance. But it is also used in slang terms to describe an evaluation of attitudes. One example of a “litmus test” is to survey both the incumbent candidates and the challenging candidates about special interest issues, particularly about issues which do not yet reflect in their voting records. Written surveys about attitudes toward mourning dove hunting can access a politician’s level of support or opposition for this issue. Generally when a politician fails to respond to a survey or omits answers to certain questions it is assumed that he/she is opposed to that issue or part of the issue. The results of that survey, including information on what voting district each candidate is running for, can then be distributed to the special interest group or the entire sporting community. The overall sporting community probably would not be interested in the attitudes of their state representatives toward mourning dove hunting and conservation. However legislative bills are often packaged together in one bundle known as an “omnibus bill”. We believe that term may be synonymous with the term “Act” but we are not sure and do not think it really matters for our purpose. Some people feel omnibus bills are not democratic , however. Nevertheless, bundling a dove bill into an omnibus bill containing other bills such as the more popular whitetail deer management issues might be an option. There is still another way to throw around the term litmus test… There currently is a draft management plan for mute swans open for public comment. The nature of the opposition against eradicating mute swans is very similar to the opposition to allow sustainable mourning dove hunting. Although we have been concerned about the negative impact on mute swans for some time and were aware of the national court challenges erroneously citing the migratory bird treaty act of 1916, the new management plan caught us blind-sided and we just learned of it a few days ago. We want to make it clear that the issue of mute swans certainly is very important on its own face and sportsman-conservationists should become engaged in the issue right away, as the deadline for comment is in February. However we also want you to consider it as a “fire drill” or litmus test… We have received very little response to our e-mail blasts regarding the management plan. One person was critical, others sarcastic, and a handful of others supportive but gave no indication they were going to participate in the stakeholder input nor that they were going to relay the information to their network. So here is the litmus test: If a few days ago we attempted the same outreach, but the issue was either a draft management plan for mourning doves or a legislative bill in the state house to designate mourning doves a migratory game bird thereby paving the way for the DEC to establish a dove hunting season, would the participation and the networking be appreciably more?