When will the bloodlust end?

At what point do we say “enough with the killing already”?

Is there no form of life that walks this planet that somebody doesn’t want to open up on?

For the sweet love of all things holy, hunters want to stalk mourning doves with shotguns?

What is next, hunting crappies with cybernetically enhanced dolphins and laser-guided torpedoes?

Even people who love to hunt and would kill just about anything that walks, swims or flies would have to stop and ask if you are serious about killing doves.

Now, deer can come flying through your window and kill you when their numbers get so large they start roaming far and wide looking for food. But doves?

The only reason to advocate the wholesale slaughter of these creatures is for the symbolism.

No one is being harmed by the existence of mourning doves.

Their numbers are plentiful, but there is not an over-population.

Some would say that we need to advocate the hunting of mourning doves because Iowa is losing hunting revenue to neighboring states that do allow this kind of hunting.

Well, good for them.

If all the other states were legalizing cannibalism should we do that, too? We think not.

Let the great white hunters of America go to those other states. Since when does Iowa make its money off of hunting? This isn’t safari country — it’s farm country.

The only reason to hunt these tiny birds is for the sheer pleasure of watching the light in their little eyes dim as life flees their wee bodies.

That and for food. But what kind of meal can you get out of a mourning dove? There is barely enough meat on a mourning dove breast to make a Chicken McNugget.

The Epicurean argument falls flat anyway because it is rare that anyone goes on about how good they taste.

In this age of fast food, fast cars and easy virtue, isn’t it nice to know that some things are still sacred?

Certainly, there are enough 12-year-olds with pellet guns to keep the mourning dove population under control.

Certainly, there are enough real problems to keep Iowa’s lawmakers occupied in the next session.

Certainly, the hunters of Iowa can find bigger and better things to kill with their time.