Oregon Ballot Initiative Would Criminalize Hunting, Livestock Slaughter, Even Pest Control

Hunting, breeding livestock, even pest control would be all but illegal under a ballot initiative backed by Oregon animal rights activists and opposed by incensed Oregon farmers.

The proposal, Initiative Petition 13, would lift virtually all exemptions to state laws related to animal abuse, neglect and sexual assault. The vast majority would ban common farming practices from artificial insemination used in targeted breeding and killing live animals for meat. Farm animals could only be raised for rodeos, milk or fur and could be spayed, neutered and castrated.

In addition, IP 13 would further restrict hunting, fishing, trapping and “intentional injury” of an animal that would bring undue suffering. Research labs would be prohibited from experimenting on nonhuman mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. All of the activities listed would carry criminal penalties.

IP 13 was approved by the Oregon Secretary of State for circulation on July 15. Under Oregon’s initiative petition process, IP 13 organizers have until July 2022 to gather the 112,020 signatures needed to get the initiative onto the November 2022 ballot.

David Andrew Michelson, a Portland animal rights activist, is the initiative’s chief petitioner. He and organizers have claimed on IP 13’s website and elsewhere that the state’s $5.7 billion farming industry would adjust to the laws accordingly, without evidence.