Extreme Ballot Initiative in Oregon Criminalize Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping

I understand the allure of ballot initiatives for many people, especially those who believe their causes are popular enough to win with the public but controversial enough that no politician will touch them. A ballot initiative puts the matter before the people and lets them decide, and that’s had some interesting results in various places over the years.

The problem I have with them is that they also allow moronic people to potentially screw everyone else in the state over.

A prime example of this is a ballot initiative in Oregon that reportedly has enough signatures to go on the ballot. The initiative is…well, it’s something special because it basically bans, among other things, every way possible for a person to get meat besides the grocery store.

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.   

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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. 

Now, this might not sound so bad, because animal cruelty is a terrible thing that no one approves of.

The problem is when the rubber meets the road. (meats the road?) Like a lot of proposals, this might sound acceptable when you look at the overly broad strokes, but when you get into the nitty-gritty, it’s something far more dystopian.

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.

So this isn’t even a case of telling you to live in the pod and eat the bug. The inclusion of pest control means eating the bug would be illegal, too, unless you got it at a store.

And all of that would have to come from out of state.

Now, the good news is that no one expects this to pass, including the dipsticks who wrote it. This is one of those “raise awareness” things, but the issue here is that the only awareness that should be raised is that these people are absolute freaking idiots.

First, let’s consider the role hunting plays in conservation efforts. Hunters not just fund those efforts via their licenses, but they also serve to control populations to prevent things like animal starvation due to overpopulation. The same with fishing and trapping. 

This ban is also anti-science, since it would prevent a lot of research, including many studies of wildlife where the animal isn’t used for some kind of horrific testing. 

It’ll prevent people from even breeding their pets, for crying out loud, and that’s such a nothing issue that it’s bizarre that anyone signed this crap.

Whatever world these people want sounds like an absolute nightmare, but even for just Oregon, it would destroy numerous industries overnight, put thousands out of work, drive up food prices, and create a hellscape for the very animals they claim they care about.

The issue with ballot initiatives is that it lets anyone with enough money throw bat-guano insane crap on the ballot, but only a brief description that might not tell the whole story.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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