Despite a strong record on animal protection, Markey wrongly sided with the Trump Administration to green-light the largest owl massacre in world history, enabling the devastation of old-growth forests that threatened spotted owls call home
WASHINGTON— Animal Wellness Action today announced its endorsement of U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, citing his “near perfect record on federal policies relating to animal welfare.”a
“Seth Moulton is rock solid on animal welfare, and for that consistent approach across the wide range of animal protection policies, he has secured our endorsement,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. “Whether the issue is animal fighting horse slaughter, puppy mills, factory farming, or protecting owls from a dastardly scheme to kill half a million of the long-protected birds them to benefit the timber industry, Congressman Moulton will stand for animal protection values.”
Rep. Moulton and Sen. Markey line up on a wide range of animal issues, including defending Question 3, a ballot measure that 78% of Massachusetts voters approved a decade ago to restrict extreme confinement of animals on factory farms. But they have taken contrasting positions on a $1.35 billion plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill 450,000 North American barred owls, a species that has been federally protected for more than a century. Last fall, Markey voted against consideration of a measure to stop this largest owl-killing scheme in world history.
“The Interior Department has tried to describe the effort to kill North American barred owls as a way to help spotted owls because of competition between the look-alike owls,” noted Pacelle. “But this barred owl kill plan, and a subsequent effort by this same federal agency to gut the habitat protection requirements of the Endangered Species Act, are timber industry initiatives that allow an assault on old-growth forests in the northwest that will produce a massive body count of both species of owls.” Pacelle wrote in detail, in this blog, about the agency’s collaboration with the timber industry to destroy the forest habitats for the owls and to kill the birds by direct shooting.
Moulton is a cosponsor of nearly every major piece of animal protection legislation in the Congress, spanning an array of important issues including animal fighting, horse slaughter, puppy mills, wolf protection, and greyhound racing. He is also supporting innovators in the Commonwealth’s research and science corridor by working to replace animal testing in favor of 21st-century, animal-free science. And he is working to enhance enforcement of our nation’s laws against animal cruelty by supporting legislation to create a dedicated anti-cruelty prosecutors’ unit at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Earlier this year in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Moulton voted for a bipartisan amendment to the Build America 250 Act to permanently stop the export of horses to foreign countries for slaughter for human consumption, and to prohibit the use of dangerous double-decker trailers to transport horses.
Moulton and Markey have been aligned in working successfully to enact a range of federal measures, including the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act, and Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. They also supported efforts to apply the national ban on animal fighting to the U.S. territories.
Animal Wellness Action encourages voters in Massachusetts to support U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. You can find Animal Wellness Action’s congressional profile of Rep. Moulton here and its profile of Sen. Markey here.