Angry Local Govt = Good News For Cats

declawbanner

This all started in 2003 when West Hollywood voted to ban the declawing of cats.  The California Veterinary Medical Association got their panties in a twist and tried to have the ordinance overturned.  When that failed, they lobbied the California Legislature and succeeded in getting a law passed and signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger that bars local governments from banning the declawing of cats starting in 2010.

declawdiagramThis, in turn, has ticked off local governments who feel the State has no business dictating what ordinances they can and cannot pass.  So several California cities have passed bans on declawing to beat the 2010 deadline—Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Francisco, & Santa Monica—with Malibu passing a resolution but no ordinance.  Culver City and Burbank may also consider a ban.  And the counties of Humboldt, Marin and Sonoma may also ban declawing.

Declawing is also known as an onychectomy which is the amputation of the first knuckle of each toe.   Another procedure is flexor tendonectomy which is the severing of the tendon that allows a cat to control or extend its claws.  (Note: this is graphic and disturbing, but persuasive.  If you need visual evidence of what declawing is, you can take a look at the results. From lisaviolet.com)

3 Replies to “Angry Local Govt = Good News For Cats”

  1. What do you think about SoftPaws, the soft plastic claw covers? I would think they’d feel crowded….removing the normally occurring space between cats’ fingers/ I mean claws.

  2. I don’t know, I haven’t ever used them. They do look a little bulky. My approach has been to keep our cats claws trimmed and try to provide each cats favorite type of scratching surface.

  3. I had My Cat De Clawed and have since regretted it, but at the moment I am staying at My Girlfriends Fathers house and in order to Keep our cat I had no choice, But If I could take it back I would.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.