OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
East Oregonian
Ballot:
on farms, research labs,
exhibitions and in the wild
would no longer be allowed
to be intentionally injured
or killed.” However, Mead
disagrees with the drafters
of IP13 and their proposed
mission statement on the
IP13 webpage. The law as it
is proposed, he said, would
need to be considered in
courtrooms to fi nd the exact
limitations and framework.
“Anyone who says any
activity will become illegal
with the passage of IP13 is just
fl at wrong,” he said. “With the
animal cruelty exemptions
removed, the Oregon courts
will need to decide what
animal cruelty is.”
How animal cruelty is
defined in the law, Mead
said, is open-ended.
“Animal cruelty statutes
seldom defi ne what is cruel
and what is humane,” Mead
said. “For example, statutes
do not specify that beating a
dog to death with a baseball
bat is cruel. Or that killing
a dog by lethal injection is
humane.”
Mead st ated if the
proposal did muster up the
signatures, and passed in
the November ballot, the
proposal wouldn’t tur n
hunters into criminals over-
night.
“The Oregon courts will
need to decide what, if any,
hunting and fi shing prac-
tices violate Oregon animal
cruelty laws,” he said. “I
could well see the courts
fi nding leg-hold traps are
cruel. But, I would be
shocked if the courts found
a father and daughter fi sh-
ing with a cane pole animal
cruelty.”
Michelson said one of
the secondary goals of the
proposal is to help draw
attention to exemptions
in Oregon statutes regard-
ing animal abuse, and how
the animal abuse laws give
protections to pets but not to
livestock.
“We’re one of the few
states that acknowledges
that animals are sentient
in our state stat utes,”
Michelson said. “Yet our
animal cruelty laws largely
only protect our compan-
ion animals. All the other
animals, whether they’re in
farms or in research labs or
in the wild, or in rodeos and
exhibitions, they’re exempt
from those same protec-
tions.”
Michelson noted the ulti-
mate goal of the campaign
would be to ensure all
animals in Oregon have the
same rights and protections
that companion animals
enjoy.
“La rgely, what ou r
campaign is focused on is
the right for animals not to
be killed or injured, to not be
neglected, and to not be forc-
ibly impregnated or forcibly
masturbated,” he said. “Our
focus is very intention-
ally on that, and so we will
continue the campaign until
those rights are achieved.”
As of Tuesday, March 15,
the IP13 Facebook page had
344 followers, and its post-
ings attract more negative
comments than supportive
ones. If the proposal passes
— either now or in 2024 —
it likely would face lengthy
legal scrutiny, according to
Jacob Mannis, the deputy
district attorney for Oregon
who handles animal cruelty
cases.
“It would require a lot
of things to happen before
it would become the law,”
he said. “I assume that
there would be a round of
lawsuits before anything
gets enforced, and then
there would have to be a law
enforcement agency that
would investigate, a pros-
ecutor that would prose-
cute and ultimately a jury
that would convict, because
anybody in Oregon who’s
been accused of a crime has
a right to a trial by jury.”
fi rst injured, he “absolutely”
couldn’t go out to shoot, he
remembered.
“I couldn’t leave the house.
I couldn’t do anything.”
About the time his
psychologist suggested he try
returning to his favorite sport,
his speech therapist recom-
mended the same. As Gentry
Thorpe was able to return to
his hobby, the mechanics of
the sport retrained the focus
and stamina he’d lost, much
to his relief.
With the arrival of the
COV I D -19 pa nde m ic,
Gentry Thorpe took time to
promote Black Hammer in
every fashion he could.
“It gave me an opportu-
nity to post my stuff on social
media, and more people who
were sitting at home and
doing nothing saw it. I just
flooded social media and
tried to break the internet
with all of it.”
His wife used her degree in
graphic arts to help with logo
and marketing eff orts, he said.
As the response started
rolling in, Gentry Thorpe felt
his depression falling away.
“People came, they
showed up and they went
shooting. And I got to social-
ize again. I was able to leave
the house.”
He plans to pay the medi-
cine forward, he said.
“I’ve just tried to share
what helps me with other
people. I want them to have
that same feeling.”
Continued from Page A1
‘Their hearts are in the
right place’
Farmers balked at the
proposal, stating it wouldn’t
be worth the eff ort or the ink
to do a story about the initia-
tive. Prominent La Grande
hunter Steve West, of the
TV show “Steve’s Outdoor
Adventures,” said the proposi-
tion likely would fail to gather
enough signatures to make it
on the ballot.
“The people who come up
with this, their hearts are in
the right place because they’re
so attached to animals,” he
said. “The reality is they will
never get enough votes to
pass something like this. I
just don’t see any chance in
hell that they even get 100,000
signatures to even get it to a
ballot. It’s just so out there.”
West said proposals like
these have an unintended
side effect of uniting groups
that are opposed to similar
initiatives.
“If anything, my bet is this
is something that would solid-
ify and unite the ranchers,
farmers and hunters,” he said.
“It’s probably going to unite
the other side just to stamp it
out once and for all.”
Offi cials from the Confed-
erated Tribes of Umatilla
Indian Reservation said
they’re not worried about the
initiative, citing treaties that
would supersede the law.
They are, however, watching
closely in the event the tribes
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
A cow and calves rest in a fi eld Thursday, March 17, 2022, along Peach Road, La Grande. Initia-
tive Petition 13, a controversial animal rights proposal that would aff ect livestock, has stalled
as organizers failed to gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot in November.
need to take a reactionary
approach to the proposal.
“We’re continuing to
watch and see how far it goes,
and see what happens in July
to see if they get their initia-
tive fulfi lled with the required
signatures,” said Jiselle
Halfmoon, interim commu-
nications director for CTUIR.
“Then, of course, we’ll read-
dress it, but at this time we’re
pretty secure in our situation.”
Law experts
say proposal is
misunderstood
Russ Mead, a professor
of law at Lewis & Clark
Law School in Portland,
said what the proposal says
it will do and what the two
opposing factions for the
proposition say it will do
diff er greatly.
“Oregon’s animal cruelty
laws have a long list of
exceptions,” he said. “For
example, hunting and kill-
ing livestock is exempt from
Oregon’s animal cruelty
laws. IP13 removes these
exemptions. The result is
not that hunting and kill-
ing livestock will be illegal
if IP13 passes, it is just that
when you hunt, you need to
be humane. When you kill
livestock, you need to be
humane.”
The website for IP13
states its goal is to enact
legislation that would
make it so that “animals
Trauma:
Continued from Page A1
have become another statis-
tic reflecting outcomes for
young Black men living in
such circumstances had it not
been for family.
Thorpe’s older brother
also had joined the Army as
a young man and ended up
stationed at Joint Base Lewis–
McChord near Tacoma.
“Then he came to Walla
Walla,” Thorpe said. “He
talked me into coming up
here and going to work at the
prison. I had to look Walla
Walla up; I only knew the
name from a Looney Tunes
cartoon.”
Thorpe spent his last
dollars to come for an inter-
view. Assured a job would
be his, he fl ew home again to
make the move.
“My mom gave me the
money to drive up here. I had
$19 to my name when I got to
Walla Walla. I lived with my
brother until I got on my feet.”
That was in 2008. By
2009, Thorpe had installed
his family, including four chil-
dren, in their new hometown
and continued to focus on
building a career as a correc-
tions offi cer.
The work suited him. At
the time, he said, the prison
had a “paramilitary” atmo-
sphere that was attrac-
tive for its structure and
clear expectations.
“I got promoted fairly
quickly because I was good at
my job. Everything was good.
We had just bought a house.”
Thorpe, 42, had been
a shooting enthusiast for
years, but coming to this
area brought his hobby into
sharper focus.
“I met some white dudes
who took me out shooting,”
he said, laughing. “It was like
love at fi rst sight. I had never
just shot for fun.”
By 2016, Thorpe was host-
ing competitive matches and
teaching classes, with an
emphasis on precision shoot-
ing with .22-caliber rifl es.
He fi rst informally started
Black Hammer to teach
people long-range shooting
skills, primarily using the
range at East End Rod & Gun
Club in Milton-Freewater,
Thorpe said.
He teaches both rimfire
and centerfi re shooting, but
this year the focus is on the
simpler rimfi re model to make
the sport less intimidating and
less expensive.
Thorpe even supplies
a rifle and ammunition to
those who want to try it out,
a courtesy he calls “the Black
Hammer experience.”
The business now presents
seasonal shooting matches.
Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
Brandon Kelly with Baylee Kelly, 9, Keegan Winters, 14, and
Leam Key, 13, at a Black Hammer winter series event in Feb-
ruary 2022 in Milton-Freewater.
Thorpe is hosting a fi ve-part,
competitive winter series that
will culminate in his first
two-day event on April 9 and
10.
In February, attendance at
the third session was robust
with about 40 adults and a
handful of children moving
through the course, vying to
strike their targets.
Brandon Cadwell, who
runs logistics and coaches
shooting for Black Hammer,
hustled here and there to help
groups get lined out, a broad
smile welcoming all.
“This year, we got affi li-
ated with the Precision Rifl e
(Series), meaning some of
these shooters are showing
up to earn points for that,”
Cadwell said.
On this sunny day, that
included groups like the team
from Lead Farm Gun Range
in Prosser.
L e e St e b a r, f r o m
LaGrande, said Lead Farm
members have been faithfully
traveling to Milton-Freewa-
ter to participate in the Black
Hammer series.
“This is pure enjoyment,”
Stebar said, waving a hand
toward the range, explain-
ing the challenge of multiple
targets in multiple positions
creates a happy tension as
Lead Farm shooters try for the
highest point count possible.
“It gets intense, and that’s
half the pleasure.”
Down from Othello, Wash-
ington, David Valdez was
attending his fi rst competi-
tive match after meeting other
shooters at another event. It
was a good way to spend a
Saturday outdoors with new
friends for not a whole lot of
money, Valdez said.
“The .22 is cheaper, and it
teaches the fundamentals of
shooting.”
Victor Mendoza from
Hermiston agreed.
“It’s just flat out fun, a
good way to practice for rela-
tively low cost. And this is a
really nice range.”
Duc Luu, a dentist at the
Walla Walla prison, has
known Gentry Thorpe for
years and relishes being part
of the Black Hammer crew.
Events like this, which
attract families and friends,
“puts shooting in a positive
light,” Luu said.
“We all value the Second
Amendment, we love the
community support. This
is very organized and very
safe.”
Target shooting under
these circumstances can be
a good youth activity, all the
better for being an outdoor
sport, Luu said.
Jimmy Cadwell, 6, could
be inclined to agree. The
Assumption Catholic School
kindergartner participates
in the “Mighty Mini” divi-
sion for shooters age 10 and
under, with a focus on fun
over competition.
Nonetheless, when asked
what he enjoys about the
sport, Jimmy shot out an
answer:
“Winning.”
Winning at recovery
Gentry and his wife,
Diedra Thorpe, now fully
understand there is more than
one way to win at target shoot-
ing.
The residual brain trauma
from the inmate attack left
Gentry Thorpe with short-
term memory loss, cognitive
issues, mental fatigue and
poor concentration. Vertigo
and migraines plague the
corrections offi cer while peri-
ods of dark mood and fl ashes
of anger impact the rest of the
family.
“My psychologist tells me
that’s part of the brain injury.
I was super mellow before,”
he said.
His wife has been a
trooper, working as a
para-educator at an elemen-
tary school while pursuing a
master’s degree in teaching
and picking up the slack on
the bad days, he said.
It was Diedra Thorpe
who insisted her husband,
a self-proclaimed “non pet
person,” get the service dog
health providers had recom-
mended. Thus, “Blu” has
joined the family.
When Gentry Thorpe was
A9
March
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