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Voter opposition to Ordinance 309 in Denver is a big win for animal ag

The American Sheep Industry says the ag industry had a big win when Denver voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have banned slaughterhouses within the city limits. “Voters decided very emphatically against an animal rights-led effort to prohibit the slaughter of livestock in the city of Denver,” he says.

Peter Orwick tells Brownfield Ordinance 309 failed, with nearly 65 percent of voters opposing the ban.  He says animal rights activists were very strategic in their efforts. “They picked Denver because they thought if they could do something silly like this in Denver, you could do it in any metropolitan area in the United States,” he says. 

Orwick says that the facility processes about half a million lambs a year, and the loss of it would have had ripple effects through the ag industry. “You have an entire feeding system that is set up in Northern Colorado,” he says. “They buy lambs from all the surrounding States and bring those into that plant. So, you have thousands of farms, ranches, feedlots, all your trucking.”

He says several ag groups, including the Colorado Livestock Association, National Pork Producers Council, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, came together to fight the measure and educate voters.

Brownfield interviewed Orwick at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting in Kansas City, MO.