Ah, the power of the citizens' referendum.
Someone gets an idea - however whacky. Writes up a referendum for the people's consideration and takes off into the wilderness to gather enough required signatures on a petition in order to present the petition as the justification for placing said referendum on an upcoming ballot.
In some places, like Alberta, Canada, gathering the required signatures, some 177K, was achieved in a snap, and the final count was well north of 330K. The courts have stymied the ballot issue.
In the United States, in a state, like, say, Oregon, the petition system has several moving parts to it.
Placing a Statewide Initiative on the Ballot
To qualify an initiative for the next regularly scheduled general election, chief petitioners begin by filing the following form with the Elections Division:
SEL 310: Prospective Petition for State Measure (online form)
Placing a Statewide Initiative on the Ballot
After chief petitioners gather and submit 1,000 sponsorship signatures, the Elections Division forwards the text of the prospective petition to the attorney general for the drafting of a ballot title, which impartially summarizes the petition and its major effect.
Initiatives: Signature Gathering
Chief petitioners may begin gathering signatures once the ballot title process is complete, they have received written approval to circulate, and have reviewed with circulators the legal requirements and guidelines for circulating an initiative petition.
Initiatives: Signature Verification
Signatures must be submitted to the Elections Division for verification no later than four months prior to the date of the next regularly scheduled general election. The Elections Division places the measure on the ballot if signature verification shows the petition contains the required number of signatures.
The number of signatures required to qualify an initiative for the ballot is based on a percentage of the total votes cast for governor at the last election.
- For a constitutional initiative, valid signatures totaling at least 8% of the total votes cast for governor at the last election is required.
- For a statutory initiative, valid signatures totaling at least 6% of the total votes cast for governor at the last election is required.
Now, it goes without saying that most 'initiative' ideas wither on the vine somewhere between the bright idea of the person who originally thought it up and turning in a completed petition in the time allotted for verification. Most are fated to be swallowed in any of the steps in between, from filling out that initial 'prospective petition' paperwork, circumstances changing that negate the reason for the measure to begin with, or throwing in the towel after running into too much resistance - or apathy - along the way, asking you if you're out of your cotton-pickin' mind for even thinking about such a lunatic proposal.
Sometimes, though, the lunatic proposal gains traction. Worse, it gains it stealthily because it was so crazy, no one thought it had a chance, only to wake up one morning on the cusp of the deadline to turn in the petition, and the crazy idea has damn near enough names to get across the threshold.
That's what's just happened in Oregon, and for a proposed referendum that has sportsmen, ranchers, farmers, businessmen, and wildlife managers alike gasping for air.
Oregon initiative that would criminalize hunting, fishing moves a step closer to November ballot
Yeah. You read that right.
Imagine a world with no hunting, no fishing, no livestock.
That might sound like Bizarro World to most Americans. But animal rights advocates are pushing to make it a reality in Oregon.
Initiative Petition 28 would remove many exemptions from current Oregon animal cruelty laws to protect more animals from abuse, neglect and killing. Exemptions would remain for self-defense and veterinary practices, but otherwise the measure would criminalize any activity that injures or kills animals.
It has taken two years to get the requisite number of signatures, but the organizers, the so-called People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions, or PEACE (of course they are), say 'Worry not, gentle, but bloodthirsty Oregonians! You can get by without killing things.'
They are advocating the vegan version of 'learn to code.'
...“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.
For legislation that, if passed by the voters, would effectively ban and criminalize everything from hunting, fishing, clamming, crabbing, and shrimping to even - gird your loins here - PEST CONTROL.
...The initiative “criminalizes injuring or killing animals, including killing for food, hunting, fishing; criminalizes breeding practices.”
More specifically, injuring or killing animals, including farming, ranching, hunting, fishing, trapping, pest control, research/teaching; criminalizes breeding practices, would all be a crime.
The only exceptions are some veterinary practices and self-defense, like if a pest becomes a health risk.
CROPS NOT COWS
..."There are so many different alternatives. Thirty percent of Oregon agricultural sales are animal related, 70% are crops. We can have 100% of those be crops if we wanted to," David Michelson, chief petitioner of IP28 told KATU.
While these whackjobs feel bad for the folks who might be 'temporarily unemployed,' they have a vegan pie-in-the-sky 'transition fund and retraining plan' to make it all better.
Yeah, okay. Good luck replacing all this, tofu boy - the salaries from the agricultural workers, not to mention the fees that the hunters and fisherfolk pay for their licenses and permits that help support the wildlife department and state parks. That's without adding in what tourists to the state bring in when they come for those outdoor sports.
...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.
Rainbow unicorn fart economic illiterates are going to be the death of us, I swear to God.
That the measure is this close to being legitimized by a ballot spot has people across the state in all sorts of disparate businesses fretting about the impact.
...However, this time hunters and restaurant owners say they are concerned because of the amount of attention the move has gotten.
Michelle Wachsmuth is a fourth-generation owner of Dan & Louis Oyster Bar in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood. She told KATU the impact would be far greater.
“It would be devastating for our business. I would still be serving seafood, but we would have to import everything from another state. Oregon is already -- downtown Portland is already in a recession. And Oregon is number five in unemployment. And it's gonna send us right from a recession right into a depression. It's like, how much more can this poor state take?”
"We always buy sustainable seafood. We try to make sure that we get wild caught whenever we can. We only use farm raised oysters. We try to do everything we can to make sure we keep Oregon sustainable. And so if you take all of that away, it would just devastate not just restaurants, not just grocery stores, but it hits the farmers. It hits everybody. It would devastate this entire state to shut down hunting, fishing, and animal farming," she said.
The Oregon Hunters Association also shared deep concerns about the impact the initiative could have if voters approve it.
"It's not only a way of life. It's how a lot of folks feed their families. And at the end of the day, we're not talking about tens of millions of dollars. We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars each year that contribute to the economy," Todd Adkins, executive director for Oregon Hunters Association, told KATU.
Pish posh.
If you were smart @KATUNews you would do the deep dive into the ramifications for the entire state.
— WebGirlHere 🍊🦆 (@WebgirlHere) May 26, 2026
No more fishing or crabbing on the Oregon coast. Would destroy those coastal communities.
Dairy farmers and Tillamook Cheese and Ice Cream? Gone.
Cattle ranching in Eastern…
...No more fishing or crabbing on the Oregon coast. Would destroy those coastal communities.
Dairy farmers and Tillamook Cheese and Ice Cream? Gone.
Cattle ranching in Eastern Oregon or even the Valley. Gone.
Literally hundreds of thousands of jobs and companion industries wiped out in Oregon.
Most of you would become unemployed too because advertising would dry up.
Report responsibly on this @KATUNews
It's just money, and not that much money, says Mr. Michaelson of PEACE.
...“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.
The only trope he hasn't used yet is 'for the children.' I'm sure it's coming.
Groups are gearing up for a fight they shouldn't have to have.
...Todd Adkins, executive director of the Oregon Hunters Association, told The Oregonian/OregonLive earlier this year that the group would launch a campaign to oppose the ballot measure if it qualifies for the ballot.
Then again, you have to remember what state we are talking about.
All you can do is wish them good luck while watching as if it were a horror flick you hadn't seen before.
