Animal Wellness Action

Colorado's Amendment 83 would roll back protections enacted by Proposition 114, potentially relegalizing cruel and unsporting practices including steel-jawed leghold traps, bear baiting, and wildlife-killing contests in the state. Animal welfare advocates, including the group Animal Wellness Action, are warning voters about the measure's consequences for wildlife, urging them to consider which cruel practices could return if the amendment passes.

Veterinary experts and animal welfare groups are condemning the response to an H5N1 bird flu outbreak at a mink farm in Utah, calling it dangerously lax. The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action say weak containment at fur farms raises the risk of the virus mutating and spreading to humans, renewing concerns about disease surveillance and biosecurity on mink operations.

Legal scholars are criticizing Amendment 83, describing its language as vague and undefined and arguing the measure amounts to an attempt to hijack wildlife management authority. The critique, voiced through the advocacy group Animal Wellness Action, suggests the amendment could shift control over wildlife policy in ways experts warn are legally ambiguous and potentially harmful to established management frameworks.