A hunting and fishing ban may be on the ballot in Oregon this November.
Initiative Petition 28 aims to expand Oregon’s animal cruelty laws to practically ban hunting, fishing, slaughtering livestock, and other practices, The Oregonian reported Tuesday. It reportedly received over 120,000 signatures ahead of its July 2 deadline. (RELATED: Supreme Court Rules City Camping Ban Targeting Homelessness Is Not ‘Cruel And Unusual Punishment’)
The Oregon Hunters Association’s executive director reportedly told The Oregonian earlier this year that the organization will oppose the petition if qualifies for the ballet.
The Oregon Hunters Association and Oregon Secretary of State’s office did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
“We hope that a campaign like ours draws more people’s attention to the needs of the animals we currently intentionally injur [sic] and kill as a society (and recognize that they are the same needs that our companion animals also have), and that we prompt citizens to consider alternative strategies for meeting our own needs that don’t come at the expense of those animals’ needs,” petition organizer David Michaelson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“I’d empathize with how worried those individuals might be considering the shift we are asking for, and would like to provide reassurance that we want to make sure they can still get their need for economic stability met even in a world where we no longer intentionally kill animals,” Michaelson told the DCNF when asked about Oregon residents whose livelihoods may depend on hunting.
There are over 330,000 hunters and over 500,000 anglers licensed in Oregon. Farms and ranches employ over 80,000 people in the state, according to the Oregon Hunters Association’s website.
Oregon’s recreational hunting, fishing, and wildlife watching industries generated approximately $1.2 billion worth of economic activity in 2019, according to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Our initiative would not ban non-lethal forms of wildlife management, and could see those individuals continuing to work in wildlife management but simply using strategies besides hunting to do so (the USDA for instance has researched sterilization vaccines for the purpose of population control). Our initiative does propose creating a Transition Fund to help pay for job retraining, income assistance, increasing food access, to name a few areas. That could be used to help those individuals shift their livelihoods so they are no longer dependent on killing animals to meet their needs,” he said.
“We won’t know whether we qualify for the ballot until late July, which is when the secretary of state will conduct signature verification. We have until July 2nd to submit all of our signatures, and are still actively collecting signatures,” Michaelson told the DCNF.
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