There is a major push to get out the word of an Oregon ballot initiative that could basically halt farming across the state.
The measure would make it a crime to fish and hunt, but it would also remove a lot of exemptions that protect the ag community.
Oregon’s IP-13 could negatively impact every person who deals with animals, from producers, to veterinarians, to dog groomers. The Oregon Farm Bureau’s VP of Public Policy acknowledges it is a long shot but worries it would lead to prosecution of animal ag across the state.
“Because not only do you lose your exemption for all of your good animal husbandry practices, anything where you’re doctoring or taking care of your own animal. So, you could potentially be liable, basically if you’ve ever had anything that ever cause injury to them, and then they also have another new crime around animal breeding,” according to Mary Anne Cooper
She says that slaughtering would become illegal, along with everything that led up to that harvest.
Fueling the initiative is the idea that farmers can abuse animals without consequence in Oregon, which she says is simply not true.
“When you look at the prosecutions of that happen for animal abuse, a lot of times in Oregon, it’s folks that are not farmers and ranchers, but they kind of have issues around animal hoarding and animal management and they go in a bought a bunch of animals not knowing how to properly care for them,” she explains.
Cooper adds that the farming community can fight the ballot initiative by refusing to sign any petition in favor of it and sharing their story with the public about what really happens on the farm or ranch.
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