An Oregon animal rights campaign says it has unofficially collected enough signatures to put a sweeping ballot measure on the November 2026 ballot that would make hunting, fishing, trapping, and farming criminal acts under state law.
Initiative Petition 28, officially called the PEACE Act (People for Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions), needs 117,173 valid signatures by July 2. The group said it has now surpassed that threshold, though signatures must still undergo official verification by the Oregon Secretary of State.
If enacted, the measure would eliminate longstanding legal exemptions that currently protect hunting, fishing, trapping, and agriculture from Oregon’s animal abuse statutes (ORS 167.315-167.333). Under current law, those activities are explicitly shielded from criminal prosecution. IP28 would strip those protections entirely.
The consequences would be broad. Oregon’s 330,000 licensed hunters and 500,000 licensed anglers would face potential criminal liability. The state’s 37,000 farms and ranches, employing more than 80,000 workers, would be in legal jeopardy. Commercial fishing, pest control, scientific research involving animals, and wildlife management programs would all be swept into the prohibition.
Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribal nations, whose treaty rights protect hunting and fishing on ceded lands, are not exempted from the measure.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that hunting and fishing generate more than $1.9 billion in annual economic activity statewide. ODFW’s $180 million operating budget is funded almost entirely through hunting and fishing license fees, tags, and federal excise taxes on sporting goods. Should the measure pass, that funding mechanism would collapse.
Todd Adkins, executive director of the Oregon Hunters Association, has called IP28 a direct threat to roughly one million Oregonians who hunt, fish, or work in agriculture. “This measure would turn nearly every Oregon hunter, angler, and farmer into a criminal,” the Oregon Hunters Association said in a statement on its website.
The measure previously appeared as Initiative Petition 13 in 2022 and IP3 before that, failing to qualify for the ballot on both occasions. This cycle marks the campaign’s first time clearing the signature hurdle, pending verification.
