Colorado Livestock Association Supports Local Business and Minority Jobs in the Fight Against Denver Ballot Initiative

Denver voters will decide on this issue this November

PUBLISHED ON July 8, 2024

AURORA, Colo. — Colorado’s farming and ranching families are pushing back against activists to safeguard access to food, combat food scarcity, and protect jobs.

The Colorado Livestock Association contributed to the fight against the ballot initiative to end slaughterhouses within Denver city limits. Pro-Animal Future, a radical activist organization, introduced the measure, and Denver voters will decide on this issue this November. If passed, the “Prohibition of Slaughterhouses” ordinance would prevent the “construction, maintenance, or use of slaughterhouses within the County,” beginning January 1, 2026, effectively ending a business that has been a staple in the community for 70 years.

The measure unfairly targets a single, employee-owned Denver business—Superior Farms, a large meat processor—and forces it to shut down, eliminating jobs for nearly 200 people who have worked in this industry for multiple decades and who will struggle to find a similar occupation with a comparable wage to support their families.

A recent report by Colorado State University outlined the potential negative economic impact, which will significantly affect the local economy and the livelihoods of many. Consumers will pay more for meat shipped from out of state and country, and higher prices will unfairly burden families. It would directly impact Colorado’s sheep growers, and hundreds of jobs would be immediately lost, including those of Colorado’s independent farmers, truckers, distributors, retailers, butchers, restaurants and minority owned businesses.

“The passage of such a measure would establish an unnecessary punitive precedent, jeopardizing millions of dollars of commerce and necessary food production in our state,” stated Zach Riley, CEO of the Colorado Livestock Association.

This measure is unfair, ineffective, and the wrong approach.

Learn more about the Stop the Ban campaign here: www.stopthebanprotectjobs.com.

— Colorado Livestock Association