The scorecard is meant to assist you in learning about your state legislators. The information should be helpful, however, it does have limitations and doesn’t reflect every action a legislator may have taken to help or harm animals. For example, the scorecard does not necessarily reflect when a legislator testified for or against an animal protection measure, made a phone call to push or stop an animal bill, or when he or she may have helped a constituent with an animal concern in the district.
Therefore, as always, we encourage you to meet with your legislators (in either the State House or district office), write to them, and ask about positions on specific animal issues. If your legislators have been supportive of animal issues, please take a few minutes to thank them.
In the Massachusetts State Legislature, recorded votes on animal protection issues are rare. For this reason, we have included some past years’ recorded votes. This information, while still helpful, will only be available for legislators who have been in office during those votes. In order to give readers more information on legislators’ positions, we have also included information on legislators who have sponsored pro-animal legislation and those who have taken positions and co-sponsored bills harmful to animals.
The Massachusetts legislature operates on a 2-year cycle. The current session began in January 2023 and will run through the end of 2024. Visit this page for the 2023-2024 Scorecard (will be updated throughout the session with other actions).
Who Represents me?
You can find out at www.wheredoivotema.com or call your city or town hall. The Massachusetts State Legislature consists of 200 members (40 senators and 160 representatives). You are represented by one representative and one senator.
All legislators have bios that can be reached by clicking on a name on the scorecard. In these bios you will find links to district info, contact info, social media accounts, and a State House Pets page, if they have one.