About Senator Kavanagh

John Kavanagh is a veteran lawmaker having served sixteen years in the Arizona legislature and nine years of two town councils. He is the only legislator to have been named “Legislator of the Year” three times by The Humane Society of the United States. In addition to passing almost all of the humane animal laws in Arizona in recent history, Kavanagh was part of a team that ended greyhound racing in Arizona. He has passed 17 bills and sponsored 47 animal protection measures since 2013. He has a long history of working across the aisle to get animal protection bills passed and to stop legislation damaging to animals, including a bill that would have removed protection for farm animals (including horses) under Arizona’s animal cruelty law.

Kavanagh is married to Linda Kavanagh, the former mayor of Fountain Hills. As Mayor, Linda was the impetus for one of Representative Kavanagh’s first humane animal bills, which attempted to prevent carnivals from giving out live animals as prizes. A carnival came to Fountain Hills while Linda was mayor and was giving rabbits away as prizes without parental permission. Some people were releasing the unwanted rabbits into the washes after the children got home. As Mayor, Linda also assisted a local cat rescue called Fearless Kitty Rescue and she is now a member of their board of directors.

Kavanagh received a BA  from N.Y.U, a Master’s Degree from St. John’s University (Queens, NY) in Government and a PhD in criminal justice from Rutgers University. He is a retired police detective sergeant having served 20 years with the Port Authority of NY & NJ Police. He also taught full-time at Arizona State University and Scottsdale Community College, where he was the criminal justice program director and founded SCC’s forensic science program. He still teaches part-time at Scottsdale Community College.

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