Sportsmen in Oregon are facing an existential threat to our way of life: a ballot initiative seeking to outlaw all forms of hunting, fishing, and trapping, as well as the slaughter of livestock and poultry, rodeos, animal breeding practices, animal use for medical research, and more.
IP28, also known as the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions (PEACE) Act, is a measure put forward by radical animal rights activists that would intentionally affect those widespread practices by removing exemptions in the state’s animal cruelty statutes. Last week, local outlets began reporting that the petition has gathered 120,735 signatures, exceeding the threshold of 117,173 valid signatures required to make the ballot. Even if some of those signatures are disqualified, the proponents of the initiative are expected to gather more than enough to prove sufficient before the July 2 deadline.
While attacks on hunting and fishing practices have become common in recent years, IP28 is notable for its extremity, as well as the wide range of practices it would apply to. According to the proponents, “Our campaign understands that currently we are killing animals to meet important needs of ours, such as sustenance, stability, belonging—and others—our campaign also believes it is possible to use a different set of strategies (ones that don’t involve killing animals) that can meet our needs while also simultaneously meeting the needs of the animals we currently kill.”
Back in January, David Michelson, one of the backers of IP28, told the Willamette Weekly that the initiative was akin to the women’s suffrage movement, saying that he was “under no illusion that IP28 will pass this year” but that forcing a vote will “help people think differently” and “normalize the conversation.”
Regardless of the initiative’s longshot odds, local pro-hunting groups have taken the threat seriously and come out resoundingly against it. “This extreme proposal would change everything about the state of Oregon,” says Todd Adkins, Executive Director of the Oregon Hunters Association. “[The proponents of the bill’s] way of life is not our way of life. Their belief system is not our belief system. Let’s send them packing, along with a message: don’t come back.”
In its opposition to the proposal, the Oregon Hunters Association is highlighting the potential impact it would have on the state’s 330,000-plus licensed hunters and 500,000-plus licensed anglers, as well as the fact that hunting and fishing currently generate an estimated $1.9 billion annually in economic activity within the state.
National conservation groups such as the National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership have also come out publicly against the state initiative—and the potential that it could lead to similar copycat efforts elsewhere.
“Beyond individual impacts, IP-28 poses a direct threat to the North American Model of Wildlife Management, a proven framework that has guided successful conservation efforts in the United States for over a century,” wrote a spokesperson for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “Criminalizing hunting, fishing, and trapping would slash this critical revenue stream, cripple science-based wildlife management, and end cherished traditions that have connected generations to Oregon’s outdoors.”
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