Ban Cat Declawing in Ontario

We don’t often discuss the topic of declawing cats in Canada. The operation of declawing a cat is widely known to be an American concept. Yet, there is a lot of it in Canada, too. I wonder if Canada got the idea from America?

Let’s give Camille Cox a big pat on the back. She is a Canadian citizen who is described as an “animal activist”. She wants declawing banned in Ontario and she is a super person. Ontario is a province of Canada.

Is it fair and sensible to call someone an animal activist (with negative connotations within the general public) just because they are genuinely concerned about stopping unnecessary mutilation and pain to domestic cats? And should there be negative connotations in the phrase “animal activist”? My answer to both questions is obviously, no.

Camille Cox’s petition to ban declawing has been presented to the local legislature by Sarah Campbell who is an MPP (Member of the Provincial Parliament) for Kenora-Rainy River. Well done, Sarah, too.

This is an interview of Camille. It is an audio file that I converted to a video. I added a couple of poignant pictures. Note: Camille gets her facts slightly wrong about the 8 California cities that have banned declawing. But she makes a good argument.

The website that reports this nice (for many people) development about cat welfare in Canada have also run a poll about declawing. The question asked was:

Do you you think it’s OK to declaw cats?

At 7th March 20130, the answers are:

• No = 75.46%
• Yes = 24.54%

That is a clear cut expression of disapproval from the Canadian people, who I will presume are the most common visitors to the website concerned, on the subject of cat declawing.

The truth be told, we all know it is unacceptable. It is common sense. Yet, I hate the general tone of the original article and of the reporter interviewing Camille. I sense that they are reporting on a weird women who has made a time wasting petition to the local authority. That is totally wrong. If we listen to Camille we are left in no doubt that she is kind and smart. She is a quality Canadian citizen.

Notes:

1. My thanks to Marc for finding this news story and
2. The original webpage is here. Sometimes external links go wrong.