- Oregon’s IP28 (the PEACE Act) has reached 95% of the signatures necessary to earn a spot on the ballot in November.
- If passed, the bill would dramatically expand animal abuse laws to criminalize hunting, fishing, livestock slaughter, many standard farming practices and artificial insemination.
- Opponents argue the measure could severely damage Oregon’s economy by disrupting billions in animal agriculture, hunting and fishing industries.
Ahead of a July 2 deadline, Oregon is inching closer to allowing voters to decide whether to criminalize hunting, fishing, animal husbandry, livestock slaughter and more.
The third iteration of ballot initiative IP28, otherwise known as the PEACE Act, is just shy of 112,000 signatures — about 95% of the 117,173 required to appear on Oregon’s ballot in November.
Since the reported signatures haven’t been validated by the state yet, IP28’s campaign will likely need well over that number, Marie Neumiller, the Western states’ policy team manager for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, told the Deseret News on Tuesday.
“They’ve been collecting signatures since 2024 for this ballot petition, so in that time, people could have moved out of Oregon and are no longer registered voters,” she explained.
However, if passed, the initiative could severely curtail Oregon’s animal agriculture sector, which contributed more than $4 billion to the state’s economic output and employed more than 30,000 people in 2022.
“I haven’t met anyone that’s excited to see this bill passed,” Neumiller said. “And I’ve even had some meetings with people who are vegan, but they understand what harm this bill would cause.”
Amy Patrick, a policy representative for Oregon Hunters Association and Oregon Wild Sheep Foundation, added in a separate conversation with the Deseret News that the bill is a “bad idea all the way around, and it has not been properly thought through.”
Patrick has watched the ballot fail to meet the signature threshold twice, but this go-around, her organizations “are just taking the stance that they’re going to make the ballot.”
What would IP28 criminalize?
The proposition, which more than 100,000 people in Oregon have signaled their support by signing a petition, expands the state’s definition of animal abuse to include the following:
- All forms of licensed hunting.
- Commercial and sport fishing. The initiative says physical trauma caused by a hook constitutes “physical injury,” even if the fish is released.
- Trapping animals for fur or wildlife management.
- Killing livestock for meat, including cattle, poultry and pigs.
- Dehorning cattle, docking tails and castration.
- Pest control.
- Any injury or killing involved in scientific and agricultural research or 4-H programs.
The PEACE Act also expands Oregon’s definition of “sexual assault of an animal” to include artificial insemination of all livestock, horses or pets.
Nearly 80% of dairy producers in North America use artificial insemination to breed cows. Patrick referenced this high percentage, then said the bill’s classification would “decimate” Oregon’s dairy industry.
Supporters of the initiative say they believe “it is possible to meet all of our needs as human beings while simultaneously meeting the needs of the animals we inhabit this state with. Using the killing of animals as a strategy to meet our needs is a choice, and our campaign wants to propose making a different one.”
A narrowed definition of ‘self-defense’
If passed, the only legal way to kill an animal in the state would be through “self-defense” against an immediate threat of harm.
Neumiller referenced an incident from Salem, Oregon, in February where a coyote bit a woman out for a walk.
With IP28, “if a coyote ran by, nipped a kid in the heel and kept running, his parent wouldn’t be able to do anything, even if that coyote kept coming back and harassing people,” Neumiller said.
If the same animal kept attacking people, the bill would prohibit anyone from killing it, unless they were in immediate danger themselves. “The only exception carved out by this law would be if you were actively being attacked,” Neumiller explained.
The bill also prohibits lethal forms of managing overabundant wildlife populations.
How would the bill influence Oregon’s economy?
Hunting and fishing in the state of Oregon generates more than $1.9 billion annually, the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates.
“Economically, it would gut Oregon,” Patrick said.
Oregon’s beef, fishing, crabbing and hunting sectors “are usually in our top economic industries,” she explained.
“There’s not a lot of money to go around in the state,” Patrick said. “We’re facing budget cuts. So to come in and pass something that would just absolutely take the legs out of our major economy-driving industries would further hurt our economy.”
Patrick continued, “Folks who don’t hunt and fish for their food may not think too much about it, but as soon as you start talking about the local farmers market, where they go down every Saturday and they buy their lamb or beef from the same person each week — that would not be an option for them to connect with their food locally like that. That’s when people start to pay attention to this."
IP28 attempts to mitigate economic damage by establishing a “Humane Transition Fund” for farmers and anyone else whose livelihood is criminalized.
It would create a “Transitional Oversight Council” to issue grants that would “help with food assistance” either through food and cash benefits or “opening private or state-run grocery stores.”
The council would also “cover all the costs of operating a job retraining program” and “replace lost income due to the implementation of this Act until the individual has completed” the job retraining program or gotten a new career.
Not only would the Humane Transition Fund cover the cost of humans’ lost income, but it would “cover the costs of animal care” for any animals that “could no longer be killed or harmed.”