Oregon anglers spent most of this year fighting a ballot measure that would have made it a crime to catch a fish. Having won that fight, they are now trying to make sure they never have to have it again.
The Oregon Secretary of State's Elections Division has referred Initiative Petition 25 to the state attorney general to begin drafting an official ballot title and summary. The referral means backers cleared the initial sponsorship signature requirement. The measure, filed as Petition 2028-025 and branded by supporters as the Oregon Freedom Amendment, would write into the state constitution the rights to hunt, fish, farm, trap, ranch, grow food, practise animal husbandry and take part in wildlife management.
"This is about protecting the people's ability to continue the practices that have helped sustain Oregon communities for generations," chief petitioner Kari Goodheart said in a statement. "Hunting, fishing, farming, ranching, trapping, growing food, caring for animals and managing wildlife are deeply connected to Oregon's land, culture, food supply and way of life."
Clearing the attorney general's ballot title process is an early step, not qualification. Supporters still have to gather the full complement of valid voter signatures before anything reaches voters in November 2028.
The thing they are responding to came closer than most people expected. Initiative Petition 28 would have stripped the hunting, fishing and livestock husbandry exemptions out of Oregon's animal abuse statutes, exposing anyone who kills, harms or breeds a vertebrate animal to prosecution. Elections officials announced in late July that the campaign had submitted 104,262 signatures against the 117,173 required, with fewer than 74% of the sheets turned in judged valid. It was the third attempt since 2020 and the closest any of them had come.
"We petitioned until the very last day we could, but ultimately turned in fewer than what we needed," chief petitioner David Michelson wrote in a statement. He was not conceding the argument, only the year.
"2026 will not be the year that Oregonians vote on protecting animals from being killed," Michelson wrote. "If our campaign continues to grow, as it has since 2020, then such a vote may come to fruition in a future."
IP 25 is not the only response in motion, and the two efforts are not the same thing. On 4 August, at White's Country Meats in Gresham, state Senator Christine Drazan announced a separate route: a resolution to be introduced in the 2027 legislative session referring a constitutional amendment to voters guaranteeing the right to hunt, fish, gather wild foods and raise animals or crops. Drazan, the Republican nominee for governor, appeared with Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, House Minority Leader Lucetta Elmer, Senator David Brock Smith and Representative Court Boice. Because she vacates her Senate seat next January regardless of the governor's race, another lawmaker will have to carry the 1.5-page proposal.
"Oregon should not be the testing ground for extreme measures that threaten affordability, local food production, consumer choice and thousands of jobs that connect us with putting food on the table with our farms and ranches," Drazan said. "Activities like farming, ranching, hunting and fishing are all a part of our heritage, our economy and our everyday lives."
Both she and Starr described the protections as bipartisan, and there is a case for that. IP 28 drew opposition from Democratic and Republican officials alike, from the fishing, farming and ranching industries, and from Oregon's federally recognised tribes, whose treaty-protected rights to hunt and fish on traditional land would not have been exempted from the ban.
Whether bipartisan support survives contact with a legislative vote is another matter. Drazan said she invited Democratic lawmakers from the Clackamas County area to the Gresham event and none responded.
"I think that that is not a big deal because the reality is all of them opposed IP 28," she said. "Nobody supported it, and the chief petitioner said: 'We're going to do this again and again and again,' and so I think that we will continue to establish alignment."
"With Governor Drazan's leadership and both parties working together, we can send this constitutional amendment to the voter," Starr said, in a line that shows how quickly the event doubled as campaign material. Oregon Farm Bureau president Angi Bailey and several farming and fishing industry representatives also spoke.
For anglers, the practical question is which vehicle actually gets there. A legislative referral needs the 2027 session and lands on the November 2028 ballot. IP 25 needs a signature campaign and lands on the same ballot. Michelson, meanwhile, has already said what he intends to do, and he has now built a campaign that got within 12,911 valid signatures of a statewide vote on banning fishing outright.
