WASHINGTON — Olivia DiNucci, CodePink’s coordinator in Washington, D.C., posted a TikTok video last month from a home while supporting a cause outside her usual focus on Cuba and Iran: a local campaign to ban foie gras.
Initiative 86, introduced at the D.C. Council in February, would prohibit the sale of foie gras and certain other products made from birds. Voting is underway, with D.C. residents set to decide the measure on Election Day.
The campaign describes itself as a grassroots animal-welfare effort. But campaign finance disclosures show a well-funded operation backed largely by a national animal-rights organization. The money has covered petition gathering, consultants, staff and advertising, as the proposal raises questions about its possible effects on Washington’s restaurant industry.
Campaign filings show nearly $475,000 in contributions and spending. Much of the funding came from Pro-Animal Future, a Portland-based nonprofit that says local ballot initiatives are part of a broader effort to change animal-farming practices.
Pro-Animal Future established its D.C. campaign, known as Pro-Animal DC, to advance Initiative 86. Seven reports submitted to the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance detail the operation’s finances and activities.
Between Sept. 23, 2025, and Oct. 26, 2026, Pro-Animal DC reported receiving $474,190.62. Pro-Animal Future contributed $386,435.77, making it the campaign’s largest funder.
The campaign’s biggest expense was $126,780.36 in stipends paid to Cady Witt, who is identified in the filings as the campaign treasurer. Her professional profile describes her as a community impact coordinator for DC Voters for Animals.
Another $89,224 went toward 293 payments to 64 people listed as consultant-circulators. The payments, made from September 2025 through Oct. 26, 2026, averaged about $1,394 per person.
DiNucci, a professional organizer with CodePink, has often appeared at anti-Israel demonstrations and foreign-policy hearings. CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans is married to Neville Roy Singham, an American-born technology entrepreneur based in China. His financial support for activist groups has drawn congressional scrutiny and is the subject of a federal investigation.
Pro-Animal Future said CodePink has no involvement in the D.C. campaign apart from DiNucci’s appearance in her TikTok video.
The organization argues that foie gras production involves force-feeding birds to enlarge their livers. Its campaigns aim to end that practice and shift public attitudes about animal agriculture. Pro-Animal Future is described in a tax filing by Pax Fauna, a Denver nonprofit, as a related organization engaged in lobbying.
Pax Fauna laid out a decade-long strategy in 2024 that envisioned local ballot campaigns, followed eventually by statewide bans on factory farming and efforts to establish what it calls “animal freedom.” The plan described ballot initiatives as a way to prompt an identity crisis among voters and to expand the movement nationally. It also set a goal of opening as many as 10 local chapters during the 2025–26 election cycle.
Online records show that an unidentified buyer registered the ProAnimalDC.org domain in April 2025. Pro-Animal Future currently lists campaigns in Washington and Denver, and says it worked with Portland’s City Council on a foie gras sales ban adopted in June.
Pax Fauna’s founders have said they spent years organizing with Direct Action Everywhere, an animal-rights nonprofit based in Berkeley, California.
Pro-Animal Future also reported spending $7,703.70 on Airbnb accommodations last year and $22,418.69 on July 31 of this year. Pro-Animal DC said the July lodging housed about 60 volunteers who traveled to Washington for a signature-gathering drive called “Goosapalooza.” The campaign advertised the accommodation as free.
The proposed ban’s wording has become a point of dispute. It defines a “fattened bird liver product” as food or byproducts made from birds’ livers after the birds were fattened by any method or practice. The measure specifically names pâtés, spreads and processed meat products. It separately defines force-feeding as making a bird eat more than it would consume voluntarily.
Former D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine told a local outlet that the language could include chicken. Jon Mandel, a lawyer and former D.C. Council legislative staffer, said the sales ban might cover poultry-liver products even if the birds were not force-fed.
Pro-Animal Future spokeswoman Natalie Fulton said the campaign is focused on foie gras, not chicken. She also said the D.C. Council could clarify the language if voters approve the initiative.
Some restaurant owners remain unconvinced. Bart Hutchins, chef and co-owner of Butterworth’s on Capitol Hill, said he could think of at least 20 products besides foie gras that might be affected. His restaurant would consider legal action if the measure passes.
Hutchins sees the initiative as part of a wider effort to limit what people can eat. He said he worries a foie gras ban could be followed by restrictions on meat and eventually spread beyond Washington.
Pro-Animal Future’s long-term plan calls for statewide bans on factory farming, though it does not define the term. Hutchins said that lack of a clear definition concerns him because the phrase could be interpreted broadly.
The dispute surfaced at the District’s 17th Street NW High Heel Race, a Halloween drag event. Witt appeared dressed as Hutchins, wearing a chef’s hat, glasses, a drawn-on mustache and a white corseted outfit. Nearby, someone in a duck costume crouched with a feeding tube in its mouth.
Washingtonian food editor Jessica Sidman posted photos of the scene on X, describing Witt as a Pro-Animal campaign coordinator. By Thursday evening, the images had received about 42,200 views. Hutchins responded on X with a joking reference to “Bart derangement syndrome.”
Celebrity chef José Andrés, whose D.C. restaurant serves foie gras, has also questioned what the measure could mean for other foods. On X, he asked whether a ban on duck could lead to further restrictions.
D.C. Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee estimates that implementing the proposal would cost $314,000 from fiscal years 2026 through 2029. That figure includes $274,000 for an additional inspector and $40,000 for public education.
The fiscal analysis notes that the Department of Energy and Environment does not inspect restaurant kitchens or other back-of-house areas and is unlikely to begin doing so. It says an inspector would investigate complaints, visit businesses and coordinate with other agencies, but does not explain how officials would determine where products came from during routine inspections.
Hutchins said he plans to keep foie gras on the menu unless and until the city clarifies how the proposal would be enforced. He disputes the animal-welfare argument for a ban, saying he does not believe the feeding methods used by farms harm ducks. Pro-Animal DC, by contrast, says the practice causes pain and illness.
Hutchins also warned that losing Washington as a major market could put pressure on the country’s two commercial foie gras producers: Hudson Valley Foie Gras and La Belle Farm, both in New York’s Catskills region. The proposal regulates sales in D.C.; the chief financial officer’s analysis says there are no known bird farms or bird-feeding operations within the District.
The Catskill Foie Gras Collective says its member farms raise ducks without cages and use small, flexible plastic tubes to deliver feed into a pouch in the birds’ throats. The group argues the process is painless because of ducks’ anatomy and says a bird is not fed again until it has digested its previous meal. It estimates the region’s foie gras farms employ about 400 people.
Pro-Animal DC rejected claims that Initiative 86 could reach poultry-liver products beyond foie gras. The campaign said the measure is meant to prohibit foie gras sales and force-feeding, and that “fattened” refers to the unusually enlarged livers associated with foie gras production, not ordinary poultry farming.
The campaign pointed to language in the measure describing the covered products as luxury foods made from diseased, enlarged livers. It said the broad definition of “bird” is intended to stop producers from switching to another species.
Pro-Animal DC also said D.C. agencies and courts consider a law’s stated purpose when its wording is open to multiple interpretations. The campaign would support clarification by the Council if voters approve the measure. Asked what wording might resolve the dispute, Fulton did not offer further details.
D.C. voters are therefore being asked to weigh a measure promoted as a foie gras ban amid unresolved questions about its reach, enforcement and the campaign’s wider aims. Hutchins sees the issue as extending well beyond a restaurant menu. Pro-Animal Future, meanwhile, presents Initiative 86 as one part of a broader push to change farming practices across the country.
