By Jaclyn De Candio for Protect The Harvest
Sufficient petition signatures were recently gathered by animal rights extremist group Pro-Animal Future, then submitted to the Denver Clerk and Recorder. The signatures support a “citizen-led” initiative to ban a longtime Denver sheep processing facility via a 2024 ballot initiative. This effort marks yet another concerning example of animal extremists using ballot initiatives to bring their agenda to a public vote.
Denver residents will vote on the following:
“Shall the voters of the City and County of Denver adopt an ordinance prohibiting slaughterhouses, and, in connection, beginning January 1, 2026, prohibiting the construction, maintenance, or use of slaughterhouses within the City; and requiring the City to prioritize residents whose employment is affected by the ordinance in workforce training or employment assistance programs.”
A Strategic Target
This ballot measure was specifically designed to target Superior Farms, one of the largest sheep and lamb processing facilities in the nation, which harvests 500,000 animals annually. As a niche industry comprised of small-scale farmers, forcibly closing the Denver plant would be a devastating and unnecessary blow. It is Denver’s only animal processing facility, so Pro-Animal Future’s target is clear.
Superior Farms has a 70-year history with 170 employee-owners, and processes much of the lamb that makes its way directly to dinner tables each year. Processing takes place at the farm’s USDA inspected Denver facility. The potential passage of this ballot measure would cost the city of Denver $70 million to compensate Superior Farms for the forced closure.
Such a forced closure would have a significant detrimental impact on American sheep processing. The entire industry would feel the repercussions and likely reduce production, create strain on other parts of the food chain, and most likely result in increased food prices.
Preying on Voter Emotion and Lack of Knowledge
Pro-Animal Future was created by Pax Fauna, an extremist group that specifically “studies…public attitudes regarding the use of animals for food, and the narratives that can increase support for pro-animal initiatives.” It also receives funds from the Phauna Foundation and boasts “numerous small donations” that fuels the group’s agenda.
Pro-Animal Future member Alaina Sigler stated in an article she penned for Westword: “Sheep and other animals are individuals with emotionally rich lives. My friends and I aim to aid in community health, bring about animal freedom and establish environmentally just spaces.”
She directs her readers’ attention to a 2019 report titled “Intelligence, complexity and individuality in sheep,” published in an extremist “journal” called Animal Sentience. It is authored by animal rights extremists with backgrounds in neuroscience, communications, and journalism, not farming, food science, nutrition, animal husbandry, or other relevant curriculum.
It’s also worth noting that Pro-Animal Future claims its ballot measure will prioritize current processing plant employees by giving them access to job training to transition to “green industries,” yet offers no clarification regarding what those industries or jobs are, names of employers, locations, wages, and benefits or other important information.
In recent years, animal rights extremist groups have poured tens of millions of dollars into ballot measure/initiative campaigns that pray upon the emotions of voters while distorting the truth and spreading disinformation to achieve goals they cannot otherwise achieve through courts, legislation, regulation, and other means. While pursuing their vegan agenda, the animal rights extremist groups spend very little on actually aiding animals in need. Instead, these groups focus their efforts on trying to force Americans to conform to a lifestyle the majority of people and voters do not support.
Now is the time to spread awareness on this critical ballot measure as it heads to Colorado voters in 2024. Follow Protect The Harvest and spread the word as we continue to follow this story while promoting and defending A Free and Fed America™.
