Initiative Petition 28 (IP28), formally titled People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions (PEACE) Act, is a proposed ballot initiative filed with the state of Oregon for the November 2026 General Election.
At first glance it sounds a little off, but once you dig deeper into reading about the PEACE Act, it is plumb wacko, even if we always expect Oregon to be a little off base and the western one-third to be really off base.
IP28 first surfaced in 2020, then again in 2024, but it never garnered enough signatures to make the Oregon ballots. This time is different. Supporters needed 117,173 signatures to get the act on the ballot, and they submitted 120,000 signatures by the deadline of July 2.
The governor and other state and national elected officials have said they don’t support the PEACE Act, and word on the street is it shouldn’t pass. However, down the road, no one can tell what will happen.
If the PEACE Act is approved, it would extend legal protections for putting down pets and restrict farms and ranches from raising livestock for slaughter. It would stop all hunting and fishing, and there would be no artificial impregnation of livestock.
Those in support of the PEACE Act want greater investments in plant agriculture, utilizing non-lethal wildlife management practices or implementing non-animal methods for research.
If the PEACE Act does become a law, all licensed hunting would be classified as animal abuse under Oregon law. Sport and commercial fishing would be criminalized statewide.
All legal trapping, including pest and wildlife management, would become illegal.
All animal use in education, research and wildlife management programs would be banned.
Raising animals for food, dairy, eggs and fiber would constitute animal abuse.
The Oregon Tribes are not exempt – treaty-protected hunting and fishing would be jeopardized.
I can imagine their thoughts on rodeo – the Pendleton Roundup and all other rodeos would cease to exist.
In Oregon, the number of people affected by the passage of this act is staggering.
It is estimated 330,000-plus licensed hunters and their families would be affected, as well as 500,000 licensed anglers, 37,000 farms and ranches employing over 80,000 people and Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribes with hunting and fishing rights.
I don’t understand how the state can tell Tribes what to do with wildlife on their reservations. That would be a reach, I think.
Economically, this action may bankrupt the state of Oregon – just counting dollars from hunting and fishing is around $1.9 billion annually. Think about the billions of dollars from ranches and farms the state would lose.
When I first read about the act, it was like being in a bad dream. Then I read the initiative is primarily backed by out-of-state animal rights organizations. I knew then it was true.
As one can imagine, there is large support for defeating this PEACE Act nonsense. It starts with Oregon’s two senators, governor and government officials.
One would think there is no way the PEACE Act will pass, but down the road, in time, who knows. Will it spread over its borders to other states?
This is why hunters, fishermen, farmers and ranchers all need to tell their story to the public.
Dennis Sun is the publisher of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, a weekly agriculture newspaper available online and in print.
