Oregon Animal-Cruelty Initiative Fails to Qualify for 2026 Ballot

Oregon election officials have determined that Initiative Petition 28 did not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the November 3, 2026, general-election ballot, ending the proposal’s path to voters this year.

The Secretary of State’s Elections Division said it completed signature verification and found that IP 28 fell below the minimum valid-signature requirement. The decision means Oregon voters will not vote on the measure in November. It was a ballot-qualification decision, not a ruling on the proposal’s merits.

Related financial-estimate meetings were canceled

The Secretary of State’s Financial Estimate Committee had scheduled a public hearing for July 30 and a reconsideration meeting for August 3. Both were canceled after the Elections Division determined that IP 28 would not qualify for the ballot.

Officials had prepared an adopted financial estimate because the initiative was being evaluated for possible statewide ballot placement. The estimate describes the potential scale of the measure’s effects if it had qualified and later passed. It is not a final budget score, and it does not represent current spending, current revenue losses or actual unemployment claims.

What IP 28 proposed

Initiative Petition 28, identified in the financial estimate as the PEACE Act, would have changed Oregon criminal laws concerning animal cruelty, abuse, sexual assault and neglect. The proposed provisions would have applied to mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

The measure also proposed a Humane Transition Fund and a Transitional Oversight Council. Under the proposal, the council could have supported grants to agencies, organizations and individuals transitioning away from activities that would become illegal under the measure.

The estimate said the measure’s overall financial impact was indeterminate because key questions remained unresolved. Those questions included how the law would be interpreted, whether shellfish would be covered, whether existing agency programs would continue after losing revenue, how secondary businesses would be affected, how extensively the law would be enforced and how transition grants would be defined and funded.

Estimated state costs and revenue losses

If enacted, the measure was estimated to create about $20 million in ongoing annual General Fund needs. The estimate said the money could be needed to backfill revenue supporting state troopers and support the proposed council.

The estimate also projected an additional $49 million in unemployment-insurance payments in 2027 because of possible job losses. That figure was tied to projected effects of the proposal and was not a measure of current claims.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon Employment Department were estimated to receive about $165 million less per year in fee revenue if affected programs and industries lost revenue. The estimate said it was unclear whether existing programs would continue and at what cost.

State income and other tax revenues were projected to decline by $53 million to $152 million annually, using a five-year average. The estimate associated those possible losses with reduced economic activity in food industries such as dairy, eggs, beef, poultry and pork, as well as commercial seafood production, recreational fishing and hunting.

Counties, cities and tribes could also be affected

The estimate projected annual local-government tax-revenue losses of $17 million to $41 million, excluding property taxes, using a five-year average.

County revenues were projected to decline by at least $60 million annually because of possible reductions in agricultural property taxes, park fees and development revenue. County costs could rise by at least $340 million, with potential increases involving animal control, district attorneys, forest management, law enforcement and county fairgrounds, including rodeos.

The estimate said the financial effect on cities was uncertain, but identified possible reductions in transient-lodging-tax revenue tied to hunting, fishing and rodeo-related tourism.

The effect on tribal governments was also indeterminate. The estimate said it could depend on the interpretation of restricted activities, existing state-tribal agreements and treaty-protected hunting, trapping and fishing practices.

What happens next

IP 28 will not appear on Oregon’s November 3, 2026, statewide ballot. The Secretary of State’s determination does not establish whether supporters will pursue a future initiative, and the records reviewed for this article do not document a new filing or timeline.

For residents, the immediate consequence is that there will be no statewide vote this year on IP 28’s proposed animal-cruelty provisions, transition fund or oversight council. The fiscal figures prepared by Oregon officials describe possible effects only if the measure had qualified and later been approved.

Sources

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