Overview
- Supporters of Initiative Petition 28, called the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions or PEACE Act, say they reached the signature threshold in late May to qualify for the November 2026 ballot, but the Oregon Secretary of State must still verify the signatures.
- The measure would make it a first-degree animal-abuse crime to intentionally, knowingly or recklessly cause an animal’s death and would expand sexual-assault language to cover some reproductive practices such as artificial insemination.
- Agriculture and hunting groups warn the initiative could criminalize routine activities like slaughter, animal husbandry, pest control, hunting and fishing and say those changes could threaten local food supply and industries that generate over $1.9 billion in state economic activity.
- Backers frame the proposal as extending protections given to pets to farm, wild and research animals and say the goal is to force a public debate and promote nonlethal or plant-based alternatives to current practices.
- The next steps are state signature verification and possible legal and regulatory fights that could decide how the initiative’s broad language would apply in practice and what penalties, exemptions or enforcement rules voters or courts might later set.