CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Coloradans for Animal Care, today, April 16, announced the addition of four new members to the coalition. The Colorado Egg Producers, Colorado Horse Council, Livestock Marketing Association and the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union have joined the effort to stop Initiative 16, one of the most extreme ballot measures to be filed through Colorado’s initiative process.

“These partners are all an important part of Colorado’s agriculture industry and we are happy to have their support,” said Bonnie Brown, a horse owner and executive director of the Colorado Wool Growers Association. “Horse owners and equine professionals across the state should be concerned about the draconian changes Initiative 16 would make to equine animal care standards and the participation of the Colorado Horse Council will be important to helping this key constituency understand and help push back against the threat.”

Veterinarians and equine professionals are concerned about ambiguous language in Initiative 16 that would criminalize current animal and veterinary care practices and threaten equine recreation in the state.

The group also announced that the State Supreme Court has accepted its motion and will review the initiative title and the determination that the measure meets the single-subject rule.

“We’re confident that the court will agree that this amalgamation of ideas called Initiative 16 deals with multiple subjects and find that the title contains inflammatory language designed by the proponents to tip the scales and sway votes,” said Carlyle Currier, a rancher and president of the Colorado Farm Bureau. “Both are a failure of the title board to uphold the legal standards set forth in the Constitution and state statute.

Agriculture can’t sit back and hope this measure won’t make the ballot. Our industry and our rural communities are both in a very vulnerable position at the current moment, and even having such a measure on the ballot would be extremely negative for all Coloradans at this point.”

Opening briefs in the review are due to the court on May 4.