Tenure: 115th–119th Congresses
Years of Service: 2017–Present
John Kennedy has the strongest animal protection record among all currently serving Republican senators. He has paired his folksy, commonsense conservative governing philosophy with a meaningful record of leadership on anti-cruelty enforcement, wildlife protection, horse protection, farm animal protection, and alternatives to animal testing. Kennedy has repeatedly taken substantive action on behalf of animals and earned recognition from major advocacy groups for doing so. His social media videos often feature his rescue dogs, and he talks lovingly about them and their many quirky behaviors.
In July 2025, Kennedy introduced a resolution under the Congressional Review Act to rescind a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule that authorized the unprecedented killing of hundreds of thousands of North American barred owls in the Pacific Northwest to reduce social interactions with Northern spotted owls. Later the same year, in taking on this plan by the Interior Department, he forced a floor vote related to that resolution, putting all 100 senators on record on the issue. Although the measure failed to advance on procedural grounds, Kennedy delivered a forceful speech condemning the plan as inhumane and ineffective, calling out the “federal government’s repeated proclivity to do the dumbest thing possible that won’t work.”
Kennedy is also the lead Senate sponsor of the FIGHT Act, legislation to improve enforcement of laws against dogfighting and cockfighting, the nation’s most widespread categories of criminal animal cruelty. That bill has more than 1150 endorsing organizations and agencies, including the National Sheriffs’ Association and 40 state sheriffs’ and district attorneys’ associations. His leadership is particularly noteworthy given that Louisiana was the last state in the union to outlaw cockfighting in 2008, and Kennedy advocated for the state ban when he was Louisiana Treasurer.
With Senator Mike Braun as the original sponsor, Sen. Kennedy was an original cosponsor of the Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act in 2021. That bill sought to create a section with the U.S. Department of Justice with prosecutors dedicated to enforcing our federal anti-cruelty laws.
In past Congresses, he has also been the lead sponsor of the Bear Poaching Elimination Act to combat the trafficking of bear gallbladders and bile, which are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
In the 118th and 119th Congresses, he was the Republican co-lead on legislation to ease a production burden on America’s dairy cows by allowing K-12 students to receive a plant-based milk option in the National School Lunch Program. The core provisions of that measure were incorporated into a larger bill that President Trump signed into law in January 2026.
Kennedy was also an original cosponsor of the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, which became law at the end of 2022, eliminating mandatory animal testing for new drug development by authorizing the use of modern animal-free drug testing methods. He was also an original cosponsor of the follow-up legislation, the FDA Modernization Act 3.0, to accelerate the transition to non-animal testing methods. He has also cosponsored the SAFE Act to end horse slaughter for human consumption and the Animal Cruelty Enforcement (ACE) Act to establish a dedicated anti-cruelty section of federal prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kennedy’s record reflects peerless legislative leadership, bipartisan effectiveness, and high-impact engagement to benefit domesticated and wild animals.
Notable Actions
119th Congress
✅ Lead sponsor of S.J. Res. 69, to nullify the FWS Plan to Kill 450,000 Barred Owls across 24 million acres, including 14 national parks and 17 national forests, and is now going to be used as a “mitigation measure” to allow incidental take of spotted owls – turning this plan into an effort to shoot barred owls and to kill spotted owls by cutting down the trees they require to survive.
✅ Cosponsor of the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, S. 775, to ban U.S.-based horse slaughter and the export of horses for slaughter for human consumption.
✅ Lead cosponsor of FDA Modernization Act 3.0, S. 355, to direct FDA to publish a final rule to implement a law enacted in December 2022 that eliminated a Depression-era requirement for animal testing in the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (21 USC § 355) and allows for innovative 21st-century human-relevant test methods where appropriate.
✅ Lead cosponsor of the Better CARE for Animals Act, S. 1538, to strengthen enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act by expanding federal authority to investigate and prosecute animal cruelty violations and improve coordination between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice.
✅ Lead sponsor of the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, S. 1454, to strengthen federal enforcement against animal fighting and related criminal activity.
✅ Lead cosponsor of the Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act, S. 1236, to end the National School Lunch Program’s decades-old “cow’s milk only” mandate by requiring schools to offer plant-based milk options to students with lactose intolerance. The bill’s core provisions were ultimately incorporated into the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, passed unanimously by the Senate, approved by Congress, and signed into law by the President, ensuring schools may offer plant-based milk options and must provide dairy-free alternatives for students.
✅ Senator Kennedy’s Floor Speech on Barred Owl Management Strategy Legislation, S.J. Res. 69.
❌ Voted “Yea” on S.J. Res. 23 (Senate Roll Call Vote 122), a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn federal regulations strengthening implementation of the Endangered Species Act, including protections governing the listing of imperiled species and designation of critical habitat. A “Yea” vote is the anti-animal position because it supported eliminating stronger protections for threatened and endangered wildlife and their habitat.
✅ Voted “Aye” on the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 69 (Senate Roll Call Vote 597), a joint resolution under the Congressional Review Act to bring the measure before the Senate for consideration to overturn the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Barred Owl Management Strategy, which authorized the large-scale killing of barred owls in Washington, Oregon, and California. An “Aye” vote is the pro-animal position because it supported moving forward with a vote to repeal the barred owl kill plan.
118th Congress
✅ Lead cosponsor of the Better CARE for Animals Act, S. 2555, to strengthen enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act by expanding federal authority to investigate and prosecute animal cruelty violations and improve coordination between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice.
✅ Cosponsor of the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, S. 1529, to strengthen federal enforcement against animal fighting and related criminal activity.
✅ Cosponsor of the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, S. 2037, to ban U.S.-based horse slaughter and the export of horses for slaughter for human consumption.
✅ Lead cosponsor of FDA Modernization Act 3.0, S. 5046, to direct FDA to publish a final rule to implement a law enacted in December 2022 that eliminated a Depression-era requirement for animal testing in the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (21 USC § 355) and allows for innovative 21st-century human-relevant test methods where appropriate.
✅ Cosponsor of the ADD SOY Act, S. 2943, to give kids access to a plant-based milk option in the National School Lunch Program, in addition to the existing cow’s milk offerings.
117th Congress
✅ Lead sponsor of the Chimp Sanctuary Act, S. 3613, to prohibit housing chimpanzees at U.S. Air Force installations and require any chimpanzees remaining at those facilities to be transferred to Chimp Haven, the national chimpanzee sanctuary in Louisiana.
✅ Lead sponsor of the Bear Poaching Elimination Act, S. 3472, to end trafficking of bear gall bladders and bile.
✅ Approved by unanimous consent, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, H.R. 263, to prohibit most private ownership and breeding of lions, tigers, and other big cats while restricting public contact with these dangerous wild animals. The law was designed to curb the exploitation of big cats in roadside zoos and cub-petting operations, improve animal welfare, and enhance public safety by limiting private possession of these species.
❌ Voted “Yea” on Sen. Ron Johnson’s Motion to Instruct conferees on H.R. 4521 (Senate Roll Call Vote 152), which sought to reject a House-passed provision prohibiting commercial mink farming in the United States. A “Yea” vote is the anti-animal position because it supported removing the House provision to end commercial mink farming.
116th Congress
✅ Lead cosponsor of the Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act, S. 4601, to establish a dedicated anti-cruelty prosecutors’ section at the U.S. Department of Justice.
✅ Cosponsor of the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, S. 1007, to crack down on the cruel practice of “soring,” in which trainers deliberately inflict severe pain on the hooves and legs of Tennessee walking horses and related breeds to force them to perform an unnaturally high- stepping gait for competitions.
✅ Approved by unanimous consent the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, landmark legislation making the most egregious acts of intentional animal cruelty—including crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling, and other forms of torture—a federal felony when committed in interstate commerce, on federal property, or within federal jurisdiction. The measure strengthened the nation’s legal framework against animal cruelty and closed a longstanding gap in federal law by ensuring that the worst acts of animal abuse could be prosecuted even when state or local authorities could not act. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent.
115th Congress
✅ Cosponsor of the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, S. 322, which expands current federal domestic violence protections to include pets and authorizes grant money to help domestic violence shelters and other entities arrange shelter for survivors with pets.
✅ Approved by unanimous consent the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, S. 654, bipartisan legislation to make the most egregious acts of intentional animal cruelty—including crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, impaling, and other forms of torture—a federal felony when committed in interstate or foreign commerce or within federal jurisdiction. The Senate passed the legislation by unanimous consent in December 2017.
❌ Voted “Aye” on H.J. Res. 69, a Congressional Review Act (Senate Roll Call Vote 92) resolution to overturn an Obama administration rule prohibiting killing bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens, baiting bears with food to shoot them at close range, and aerial shooting of wolves and other predators. The resolution passed the Senate 52–47. An “Aye” vote is the anti-animal position because it repealed the rule protecting wildlife from these inhumane and unsporting predator-killing practices on national wildlife refuges in Alaska.
❌ Voted “Nay” on the conference report for the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Farm Bill), H.R. 2 (Senate Roll Call Vote 259), which included major animal-protection provisions prohibiting dog and cat meat consumption, extending the federal animal-fighting prohibition to all U.S. territories, and providing protections for domestic-violence survivors and their pets. The final bill also excluded the House-passed King Amendment, which threatened state animal-welfare laws. The Senate approved the Farm Bill 87–13.