Colorado court rejects animal cruelty measure opposed by farmers, ranchers

 

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday rejected a proposed 2022 ballot question about animal cruelty, saying the measure seeking to define common ranching and farming practices as sex acts violates a clause in the state constitution.

The court specifically ruled that Initiative 16 violates the Colorado Constitution’s single-subject requirement, which says a ballot question or piece of legislation cannot cover unrelated topics.

The measure, Initiative 16, would have not only made artificial insemination against the law, it would also have required that ranch animals get to live 25% of their lifespan before heading to slaughter.

“Initiative 16 fails to satisfy the single-subject requirement because expanding the definition of ‘sexual act with an animal’ isn’t necessarily and properly connected to the measure’s central focus of incorporating livestock into the animal cruelty statutes,” Justice William W. Hood wrote in the court’s opinion.

The decision returns the question to the state’s title board, housed in the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, and to proponents of the initiative. But the court’s decision means proponents will have to file a new measure to move forward and abide by the single-subject rule requirement...MORE