# A Fox News Investigation Says an Animal-Rights Network Has Put $386,000 Behind D.C.'s Foie Gras Ban Vote, and Critics Say the Wording Reaches Poultry Livers

Initiative 86 is on the D.C. ballot Tuesday. Backers say it targets force-feeding only. A Capitol Hill chef says it could ban 'at least 20 products' that are not foie gras.

- Section: [Culture](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/culture/)
- Published: 2026-10-31
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/dc-initiative-86-foie-gras-ban-pro-animal-future-474000-codepink-dinucci-butterworths-hutchins-fox-news/

Washington voters will decide Tuesday whether to ban foie gras, and Fox News Digital says the campaign is far better funded than its grassroots look suggests.

The money. Campaign filings show Pro-Animal DC raised $474,190.62 between Sept. 23, 2025 and Oct. 26, 2026, with Pro-Animal Future, a Portland, Oregon nonprofit, supplying $386,435.77. The biggest expense, $126,780.36 in stipends, went to organizer Cady Witt. Another $89,224 covered 293 payments to 64 paid petition circulators. A $22,418.69 Airbnb bill on July 31 housed about 60 out-of-town volunteers for a signature drive the campaign called "Goosapalooza."

The plan. Pro-Animal Future's related nonprofit, Pax Fauna, laid out a 10-year roadmap for local ballot campaigns and eventually statewide factory-farming bans. Fox quotes the roadmap as aiming to "provoke a sort of identity crisis for the voting public." CodePink's D.C. coordinator, Olivia DiNucci, appeared in a TikTok backing the measure. Pro-Animal Future says CodePink has no role beyond that video.

The wording. The measure bans "fattened bird liver products" from birds fattened "through any method or practice," naming pâtés, spreads and processed meats. Former D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine said the text "includes le poulet." Butterworth's co-owner Bart Hutchins said it "could ban at least 20 products," and he would consider a legal challenge. Chef José Andrés asked, "If duck goes, all goes next?" Pro-Animal DC says the measure is only about force-feeding and foie gras, and would welcome Council clarification.

The cost. D.C.'s chief financial officer estimates $314,000 from fiscal 2026 through 2029, mostly for one inspector. Producers say two U.S. farms make foie gras, and the Catskill collective says its method causes no pain. The campaign's findings say it causes pain and illness.

Note for readers: the animal-welfare claims on both sides are disputed and we did not verify them. Hutchins's warning that bans will spread is his opinion.

## Source

Original reporting: [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/codepink-leader-adds-muscle-well-funded-fight-ban-restaurant-delicacy)