DES MOINES (AP) - Mourning doves may want to lay low as the Iowa Legislature again debates whether to allow hunting of the birds.

Des Moines Sen. Dick Dearden, one of the main backers of the measure, acknowledged Monday the proposal to establish a hunting season for the doves upsets some people, but he said at least 40 states have already done so. That includes all of Iowa's neighboring states.

"People get emotional about it," said Dearden, D-Des Moines.

Among those opposing the plan is the Humane Society of the United States. The group's spokesman, Michael Markarian, noted the idea had come up before in Iowa and been rejected.

"There's just no reason to try to push this through year after year after year," Markarian said.

This time, the issue has come up at a time when the Legislature is in a slow stretch, holding off budget decisions until updated tax revenue forecasts are available in March.

Dearden heads the Senate Natural Resources Committee, and he's a passionate advocate of allowing dove hunting. In addition to pleasing hunters, he said such a move could help rural economies by bring more people into their communities.

"There's more mourning doves in Iowa than any other game bird combined," said Dearden. "It would be good for the economy of southern Iowa especially."

The arguments don't sway Markarian, who notes that "these gentle and inoffensive songbirds" have been protected from hunters for more than 90 years.

"Mourning doves are not overpopulated, they don't cause any nuisance problems, they don't damage private property and they're actually helpful to farmers because they're a ground-feeding bird and they eat the weed seeds on the ground," said Markarian.

Further, he argued, doves are a tiny bird that provide only a bite-size bit of food.

"They yield only a tiny piece of meat," said Markarian. "You don't stock your freezer full of venison for the winter by hunting mourning doves."

Dearden calls such arguments nonsense that hides the Humane Society's real agenda.

"The reality is they're just an anti-hunting group," he said.

The issue has come up repeatedly. In 2001, lawmakers approved a measure allowing the state Department of Natural Resources to set a season for dove hunting, but then-Gov. Tom Vilsack vetoed the measure. Vilsack said he believed the overwhelming majority of Iowans wanted a dove hunting ban to remain.

Gov. Chet Culver has not taken a public position on the issue, and aides did not rush to offer one when asked what Culver would do if such a measure landed on his desk. Even Dearden said the governor may not face that choice.

"I doubt if it will even come up," he said.

Markarian said activists weren't buying that argument.

"It's a tough fight every year," he said.

The Humane Society has 81,000 members in Iowa, and Markarian said he wants them to deluge the Statehouse with phone calls making clear their opposition to dove hunting.

"We want to make sure legislators know this will be a very controversial issue if they bring it up this year," said Markarian. "We're traveling the state."