Thank you for your support in 2021. With your help, we were able to advocate for animals again on a number of different fronts throughout the year. See details below.
Please help us continue our work in 2022 with a year-end donation. Your donation will allow us to continue advocating for animals in state and local government and to support the campaigns of animal-friendly candidates for public office. Your donation to Humane Voters Oregon PAC also qualifies for Oregon's political contribution tax credit (meaning you could get it all back on your taxes) up to $50 on an individual return and $100 on a joint return.
Highlights Of Our Work in 2021
With your support in 2021 we:
Advocated for animals in the Oregon Legislature, which met from January through June. We reviewed thousands of proposals for new state laws and flagged the ones likely to affect animals - about 80 bills total, including several we helped get introduced. We advocated in favor of the good ones (including bills to ban coyote-killing contests and to ban new factory-scale dairies) and against the bad ones (including bills to resume hunting cougars with dogs and to help fund government killing of wildlife deemed a threat to private property). We worked behind the scenes, submitted formal written testimony, and testified at hearings. For more details on the 2021 legislative session, including which bills passed and which didn't, go here.
Published our 2021 legislative scorecard to show which Oregon legislators were the best (and worst) for animals in 2021, along with cumulative ratings of legislators who also served in prior sessions. See all our legislative scorecards here.
Testified in agency proceedings on issues including a proposed factory-style chicken farm near Salem, permitting of confined animal feeding operations in general, and the impact of animal agriculture on climate change.
Served on a beaver management workgroup making recommendations for how beavers are treated in Oregon. Presently, beavers can be hunted and trapped on public land with a license and during a defined season, and are treated as "predators" on private land, meaning they can be killed with or without a license at any time. Beavers are getting special attention these days because the dams they build are increasingly recognized as good for the environmental health of waterways. We are pointing out that beavers should also be treated better for their own sake. For more information on the beaver management workgroup, go here.
Served on a wildlife highway-crossing workgroup developing legislative proposals for more wildlife highway-crossing structures - generally underpasses and overpasses specifically for wildlife. The crossing structures, some of which have been built in Oregon and elsewhere, benefit both people and animals by safely connecting wildlife habitat and by also reducing vehicle collisions with wildlife.
Worked with the Stand Up to Factory Farms coalition to keep new factory-style dairies from opening in Oregon - for the sake of animal welfare as well as the environment and family farms. For more on the Stand Up to Factory Farms coalition, go here.
Worked with the Oregon Wildlife Coalition to advocate for wildlife policies that are science-based, humane, and reflect the state's conservation values. For more on the Oregon Wildlife Coalition, go here.
As you can see, it was a busy year for us. Now we need your help to rebuild our funds so we can continue to advocate for animals and support political candidates who will help improve the lives of animals in Oregon. Funding will be especially important in 2022 because it will be an election year, meaning we need money to help support the campaigns of candidates who care about animal welfare. That helps them get elected and helps make animal welfare an important issue for them.
More About Humane Voters Oregon
Humane Voters Oregon advocates for animals in Oregon's political process and elections. You can support us with donations to one or both of our two funds. Donations to our political action committee, Humane Voters Oregon PAC, help us support animal-friendly political candidates by contributing to their campaigns. You can also donate to our general account, Humane Voters Oregon, to support our general operations and advocacy.
Contributions to Humane Voters Oregon PAC qualify for Oregon's political contribution tax credit. You can give up to $50 this year ($100 for a couple filing jointly) and get the full amount deducted from your state taxes when you complete your return for 2020. It won't cost you anything and it will help make animal welfare a more important issue in Oregon's political process and elections.*
Contributions to Humane Voters Oregon (our non-PAC fund) do not quality for the tax credit and are not tax deductible. Even if your contribution does not quality for a tax credit or deduction, we very much appreciate your support. It will help us give animals a greater voice in Oregon's political process and elections.
*Oregon's political contribution tax credit is not available to people with an adjusted gross income of more than $100,000 ($200,000 for couples filing jointly).