A radical initiative to ban hunting, fishing, and trapping in Oregon is now one step closer to making the ballot in November. The animal rights activists who are running a paid campaign to advance the petition say they’ve gathered enough support to surpass the threshold of 117,173 signatures. An online ballot tracker shows that the campaign had submitted 120,735 signatures as of Wednesday.
Those signatures still have to be verified by the Secretary of State’s office. There are certain verification standards for these signatures, and it’s possible (or even likely) that some of them will be thrown out before the official signature deadline on July 2.
But local hunting and fishing groups like the Oregon Hunters Association say they’re already expecting IP28 to make the November ballot. Although past versions of the same measure failed to qualify for the ballot in 2020 and 2022, OHA executive director Todd Adkins says the activists pushing IP28 are now better funded and, in some ways, empowered by the anti-hunting ballot initiatives that have cropped up during other state elections in recent years.
“I think they’re going to get it qualified no matter what it takes. It’s just like in Colorado … everybody was like, ‘They’re not going to get enough signatures’ [for the cat hunting ban], ” Adkins tells Outdoor Life. “I kept saying guys, let’s assume they’re going to get it because it’s only a question of money.”
To Adkins’ point, Oregon is one of several states (including Colorado) that allows signature gatherers to be paid in exchange for soliciting and/or obtaining signatures. (OHA has also complained in the past about how Oregon has a lower threshold for signature requirements than many other states.) And according to the Oregon Secretary of State database, the chief petitioners of IP28 were approved to operate a paid signature campaign — one they’ve been running since July 2024.
Initiative Petition 28, also known as the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions (PEACE) Act, would dramatically reform Oregon’s existing animal abuse laws by eliminating the legal exceptions that protect lawful activities like fishing and farming from the state’s animal abuse statutes. It would also establish a Humane Transition Fund and a Transitional Oversight Council to help Oregon transition into a “no kill or harm” sanctuary state.
In addition to outlawing all forms of hunting, trapping, and fishing — including catch-and-release — IP28 would also criminalize ranching, pest control, and many of the practices involved in wildlife and animal research. Most forms of animal husbandry, for example, would be reclassified as “sexual assault of an animal” under the Act. The only exceptions to these no-harm laws would be for self-defense and some forms of veterinary care, including euthanasia.
“Initiative Petition 28 is the ultimate goal of the animal-rights agenda. It wouldn’t just destroy hunting and fishing, it would destroy any and all uses and interactions with animals, wild or domestic,” vice president of the Sportsmen’s Alliance told Outdoor Life in February. “In no way, shape, or form does it make any logical sense on any level to anyone with half a brain.”
Ironically, IP28 could also cripple the state’s efforts to conserve Oregon’s wild critters by bankrupting state-run wildlife management and conservation programs, which are funded primarily through hunting and fishing license fees, tags, and federal excise taxes on sporting goods.
Sportsmen’s Alliance is one of several national hunt-fish organizations opposing the ballot initiative alongside agriculture groups like the Oregon Farm Bureau, who view the proposal as an attack on their culture and way of life. Native American tribes in Oregon have also opposed IP28, as it does not contain any exemptions to their treaty-protected hunting and fishing rights. Acknowledging the implications of such a radical change, OHA notes how IP28 would essentially “turn nearly one million Oregonians into criminals.”
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If IP28 does make the ballot after the official filing deadline on July 2, it would only require a simple majority vote to become law. However, even the initiative’s chief petitioners have acknowledged the uphill battle that would entail.
“We are also aware and readily acknowledge that this initiative is unlikely to secure 50% of the vote in 2026 (although we would of course love for that to happen),” the chief petitioners write on their website. “It may take quite some time before a majority of Oregonians are ready to stop killing animals.”
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