Two years ago I was listening to the title board hearing on the Protect Animals from Unnecessary Suffering and Exploitation, or PAUSE, Act and the first thing I learned about ballot proposals was the requirement the proposals contain only one question for voters. This exists despite the quality of the proposal, whether the information is at all factual, or if it falls within the realm of good sense. This requirement is what ultimately led the State Supreme Court to reverse the decision of the title board and keep the proposal from entering the signature collection phase to ultimately be placed on the ballot.

If passed, the costs would have outweighed the benefits and the consumers in the state would be shouldered with the fallout of the second-largest industry shuttering.

Now, another ballot proposal has petitioners attempting to outlaw slaughterhouses within the city and county of Denver. The clerk designated and fixed the following final title: “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?”

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According to the sample petition filed, the legislative intent is to prohibit slaughterhouses within the city and county of Denver based on the petitioners’ claims including foul odors, the disagreeable nature of their operations, a desire to move to a plant-based food system and to bolster the city’s stance against animal cruelty. The petition also references “emissions from industrial animal agriculture operations are a significant cause of climate change, with livestock contributing 14.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.” This statistic is thrown around frequently but has been repeatedly debunked. Dr. Frank Mitloehner is, as his Twitter handle proclaims, the GHG Guru. He’s a professor at UC Davis and the preeminent expert when it comes to emissions and the food supply.

He told me, yes, ruminant meat is responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but that’s only part of the story. GHG emissions from livestock production are higher in countries where production is inefficient. In the U.S., when a dairy cow’s productive life is over, she enters the food chain. In other countries, like India, she is put out to pasture where she no longer produces protein but does continue to produce emissions. This flaw in the reasoning behind criminalizing slaughter until 5-years of age is striking. The other fact of note is the 14.5% figure is worldwide, including those outrageously inefficient countries. Cows and other ruminants account for just 4% of all greenhouse gases produced in the United States, Mitloehner said, and beef cattle just 2% of direct emissions.

Denver, particularly around the former Denver Union Stock Yards Company, now the National Western, was home to a large number of packinghouses that surrounded the major livestock market. Once the Denver market was opened to the sheep producers on the Western Slope, Denver became vitally important to the sheep industry.

Lamb consumption is highest on the coasts though Colorado boasts more lambs on feed than any other state. In the 1920s, Denver was the largest lamb market in the world and the cement sheep barn – a blue and white concrete building recently razed – was the largest sheep barn in the country after it’s completion in 1928. Most lamb carcasses were and still are shipped in refrigeration to “breakers” nearer the East and West Coast markets where the carcasses are “broken” into saleable retail cuts. Superior Farms is located in Denver and supplies retail cuts out-of-state as well as restaurants and grocery stores in the state. Superior Farms serves a tremendous number of sheep growers – and in turn, lamb lovers – in Colorado and the Mountain West and its potential closure would be devastating economically, historically, and culturally all in the name of activism and an attempt to legislate consumers’ plates.

Whether proponents will be able to gather 26,000 valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot is yet to be seen, but it highlights the devil of the ballot initiative process. Again. Even in this most recent legislative session, there was an opportunity for public comment and discussion between stakeholders. With this process, that is notably absent, a major advantage to proponents of such notions that use emotionally charged language to pass feelgood legislation while consumers and families bear the brunt.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.