Initiative Petition 28, which would have effectively criminalized hunting, fishing, ranching, and farming in Oregon, will not appear on the November ballot after its supporters failed to produce enough valid signatures. That is the clear result. The read-through is less comfortable: chief petitioner David Michelson has said plainly that 2026 was never the target year, and the campaign came close enough this cycle to raise the question of what stops the next one.
How the signature count came apart
IP28's supporters submitted more than 142,000 signatures, well above the 117,173 threshold required to qualify. After two rounds of verification, the Oregon Secretary of State's Office found only 104,262 valid. The shortfall came to roughly 13,000 signatures.
The measure was branded the PEACE Act (People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions Act), but its scope extended well beyond prosecuting animal abusers. Oregon already has statutes for that. IP28 targeted the exemptions in Oregon's animal-cruelty laws that protect lawful hunting, fishing, trapping, ranching, and pest control. Under its language, killing or injuring an animal would have constituted abuse unless the act was necessary to prevent immediate harm to a person or another animal.
Why opposition spread across party lines
Nearly every political faction in Oregon came out against it. Gov. Tina Kotek said Friday she was "relieved" the measure failed, noting that conversations with Oregonians made clear it would not have helped them. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley opposed it. All 37 Democrats in the Oregon House opposed it. The Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Veterinary Medical Association, and Oregon Hunters Association were also in opposition.
Travis Thompson, a conservation advocate who helped lead the effort that established a constitutional right to hunt and fish in Florida, argued that wildlife policy must be driven by science rather than what he called "emotions or feelings." Thompson, working with the International Order of Theodore Roosevelt, pointed out that hunting and fishing license fees and federal excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, archery equipment, and fishing gear fund habitat acquisition, boat-ramp maintenance, wildlife research, and youth programs. That revenue, he noted, benefits hikers, cyclists, and horse riders who use those lands as well.
The counterargument: this campaign is not finished
The case that IP28 was too extreme to take seriously has already been tested and found wanting. This was Michelson's third attempt, and the campaign collected roughly 38,000 signatures beyond the threshold required in earlier rounds. Michelson has said the explicit goal is to build an organization capable of running similar initiatives "in multiple election cycles in a row" and then launching them in other states.
Thompson and the International Order of Theodore Roosevelt are now working with advocates in Ohio, Colorado, Delaware, and New Hampshire to pass constitutional protections for the right to hunt and fish before that effort arrives. Florida's Amendment 2, which passed in 2024 with 67.4% support, made Florida the 24th state to adopt such a protection. Oregon's signature count, 104,262 valid against a 117,173 threshold, is precisely the kind of near-miss that accelerates those conversations.