Washington D.C. voters are deciding on Initiative 86, a ballot measure that would outlaw the sale of foie gras and other bird-derived products. The campaign is heavily financed by a national animal-rights network seeking to eventually eliminate factory farming across the United States.
The $474,190 funding engine behind Initiative 86
Pro-Animal DC has transformed a local debate over a luxury delicacy into a high-budget political operation. According to reports filed with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, the group collected $474,190.62 between September 23, 2025, and October 26, 2026. The vast majority of this capital came from Pro-Animal Future, a Portland, Oregon-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which contributed $386,435.77 to the effort.
This financial influx allows Pro-Animal DC to operate far beyond the scale of a typical grassroots movement. The funding has been used to underwrite professional political consultants, advertising, and staff salaries, signaling a sophisticated approach to influencing the District of Columbia's restaurant industry and consumer habits.
Cady Witt and the $126,000 professional protest budget
A significant portion of the campaign's spending has been directed toward professional organizing. As reported in the source, Pro-Animal DC paid $126,780.36 in stipends to Cady Witt,a professional protest organizer and the campaign's treasurer. Witt's role as a community impact coordinator for DC Voters for Animals highlights the intersection of professional activism and ballot-initiative strategy.
Beyond Witt, the campaign utilized a network of paid laborers to gather signatures. pro-Animal DC reported spending $89,224.00 on 64 individuals described as consultant-circulators. These workers received an average payment of $1,394.13 each , demonstrating a paid-labor model designed to ensure the measure reached the ballot.
Pax Fauna’s 10-year roadmap to statewide factory farming bans
The effort to ban foie gras in D.C. is not an isolated event but a pilot in a larger national strategy. Pax Fauna, a Denver-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit related to Pro-Animal Future, has detailed a 10-year plan to "storm the nation." This roadmap moves from research and city-level initiatives—such as the recent foie gras ban in Portland and current efforts in Denver—toward the ultimate goal of statewide bans on factory farming.
Pax Fauna views these local measures as tools to provoke an "identity crisis" among the voting public, shifting the cultural needle on animal agriculture. By targeting high-end items like foie gras, the network establishes legal precedents that can be scaled to target more common meat products, a trajectory that has already caused alarm for industry professionals like chef Bart Hutchins.
Olivia DiNucci and the federal probe into activist funding
The campaign has also drawn scrutiny due to its overlap with controversial political figures. Olivia DiNucci, the D.C. Coordinator for CodePink, promoted Initiative 86 via TikTok, despite her primary focus being on the Communist Party of Cuba and the Islamic Republic of Iran. while Pro-Animal Future claims CodePink has no formal role in the campaign , the association has raised eyebrows given the political leanings of the figures involved.
As a Fox News Digital investigation revealed,the funding of such activist groups is currently the subject of a federal investigation. this probe examines the financial pipelines supporting organizations like those linked to CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans. It remains unclear exactly how much of the Pro-Animal Future funding is linked to these broader geopolitical interests or if the animal rights focus is a convenient vehicle for other political agendas.
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