Pro-Animal Future’s 10-year plan calls for statewide factory-farming bans, while Butterworth’s chef Bart Hutchins warns the campaign could eventually target other types of meat.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— CodePink D.C. Coordinator Olivia DiNucci last month posted a TikTok video of herself in a home supporting an issue far afield from her usual battles supporting the Communist Party of Cuba and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This time, she was backing a local ballot measure, “Initiative 86,” introduced in early February in the D.C. City Council to ban foie gras, a fine-dining delicacy made from duck liver, and other products made from birds. D.C. residents will vote on the measure on election day with early voting already started.

The campaign presents itself as a grassroots effort to advance animal welfare, but public financial filings reveal a far more heavily funded operation. A national animal-rights network has supplied hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial support, underwriting paid petition circulators, political consultants, staff salaries and advertising in a campaign that could reshape Washington’s restaurant industry. Far from a shoestring local initiative, the effort has reported nearly half a million dollars in contributions and expenditures, much of it backed by an organization that openly describes local ballot measures as stepping stones toward a broader “pro-animal future.”

WHO’S FUNDING AMERICA’S PROTEST UNREST? FOX NATION’S NEW ‘RIOT INC.’ FOLLOWS THE MONEY TO FIND OUT

Olivia DiNucci, D.C. coordinator at CodePink, marches at an anti-Israel protest in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 10, 2026.(Brooke Curto/Fox News Digital)

A Fox News Digital investigation of campaign-finance records, nonprofit filings and the groups’ own organizing documents traces the people, money and long-term strategy behind Initiative 86 and raises questions about how a fight over one luxury menu item became part of a much larger political campaign over what Americans eat.

A political sign aimed at directing D.C. voters to select “yes” to banning foie gras in the district.(Brooke Curto/Fox News Digital)

Pro-Animal Future, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit based in Portland, Ore., launched the campaign, nicknamed I-86, in D.C. and says its local ballot efforts are part of a broader push to change public attitudes toward common animal agricultural practices. Its IRS filing also lists its name asPro-Animal DC.

In seven financialreportsfiled with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, Pro-Animal DC provides a window into a local political campaign’s operational, financial and logistical infrastructure.

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