On Wednesday, the Title Setting Board approved the following title for Initiative #16 Protect Animals from Unnecessary Suffering and Exploitation (PAUSE):
“Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes concerning expanding prohibitions against cruelty to animals, and, in connection therewith, expanding the definition of “livestock” to include fish; expanding the definition of “sexual act with an animal” to include intrusion or penetration into an animal’s anus or genitals with an object or part of a person’s body and allowing an exception only for care to improve the animal’s health and eliminating the existing exception for animal husbandry practices; defining the “natural lifespan” for certain species of livestock and providing that slaughtering those animals is not animal cruelty if done according to acceptable animal husbandry practices after the animal has lived 1/4 of the natural lifespan; removing several exceptions to the animal cruelty statutes, including exceptions for animal husbandry; and providing that, in case of a conflict, the cruelty to animals statutes supersede statutes concerning animal care?”
The three page ballot initiative, submitted to the Secretary of State by proponents Alexander Sage of Broomfield, and Brent Johannes of Boulder, would criminalize some actions that are currently accepted animal husbandry practices and could have far reaching impacts on animal agriculture.
State livestock ag organizations are working together to submit the necessary documentation in opposition of the initiative.
View the full text of the initiative here.
