Ballot Initiative Would Criminalize Hunting and Fishing in Oregon

An extreme initiative in Oregon that would ban hunting and fishing is one step closer to making the November ballot. Oregon Initiative Petition 28—which would categorize hunting, fishing, trapping, and farming as forms of animal cruelty—has now garnered more than 117,000 signatures, making it eligible for ballot consideration by the Secretary of State.

According the Oregon Hunters Association (OHA), the so-called PEACE Act would eliminate legal exemptions that currently protect hunting, fishing, trapping, and farming from Oregon’s animal abuse statutes. If passed, the referendum would open more than 330,000 licensed hunters and 500,000 anglers to criminal liability. It would also jeopardize the treaty-protected hunting-and-fishing rights of nine sovereign tribes.

Fighting the Ban

OHA says the proposed ban is being organized and driven by out-of-state animal rights organizations. A broad coalition of conservation and special interest groups—from the Oregon Farm Bureau and the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association to Ducks Unlimited and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers—has come out against it. The Oregon Sportsmen Legislative Caucus, made up Democrats and Republicans in the Oregon State Senate, has also issued a joint statement opposing IP28, calling it an attack on the state’s rural economy and cultural heritage.

Todd Adkins is OHA’s newly appointed Executive Director. He comes to the organization after three years as the Executive Director of Sportsmen’s Alliance, where he fought hunting-and-fishing threats at the national level. He tells Field & Stream that canvassers have amassed more than 120,000 signatures in support of the measure as of May 26. “It’s a remarkable example of extremism,” Adkins says. “This is what animal extremism looks like if it’s left unchecked.”

The attempted ban has been in the news on and off since it was first introduced in 2020 as Initiative Petition 13. It failed to qualify for the ballot in 2022 before supporters reintroduced it with the same core language in 2024. When it failed again, in July 2024, the groups immediately reintroduced the measure in its current form.

Impacts to Conservation

Adkins says a referendum to cancel all hunting and fishing in the state would cripple the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, which relies on dollars generated by hunting and fishing license fee as well as federal excise taxes on guns, ammo, and other sporting goods items. “I’m not even sure we can project or estimate the hit that Pittman-Robertson would take,” he says. “The agency’s budget for wildlife management would just be gone instantly.”

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The ban would extend well beyond recreational hunting and fishing to commercial fishing and crabbing on the Oregon coast, Adkins said. And it would even criminalize routine pest control in urban areas. Supporters have until July 2 to gather more signatures, Adkins says, which could further pad their efforts in the event that some of the existing signatures are invalidated. If at least 117,173 signatures are verified, early mail-in voting on the ballot initiative could begin 14 to 18 days before the general November election cycle.

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