The American Sheep Industry Association is breathing a sigh of relief after seeing election results in Denver.
Voters turned down Ballot Measure 309, which would have shut down the area’s only slaughterhouse, as well as preventing the building of others.
“For us, it really was impactful because our second-largest lamb processing plant in the nation was at risk of being put out of business in the coming year if Denver had voted to ban the slaughter of livestock within the city and county,” according to Peter Orwick.
He goes on to explain where he believes the ballot measure really originated from.
“It was purely an animal rights-led effort, because they don’t believe in using animals for food, and Denver was a test case. They figured if they could get it done in Denver, they could probably do it in any metropolitan area in the country,” he explains. “The industry launched the campaign at the ASI national meeting in downtown Denver, January of 2024, and we gathered up a million dollars and the company itself, Superior Farms, invested a huge amount of their resources to help educate the city and voters.”
Voters overwhelmingly said no to the measure, with 64% voting against and just 36% voting for it.
