Ban Declawing in Washington, D.C.
There is a petition to ban declawing in Washington, D.C.. This is a good idea because it is the capital of the United States. Banning it there may lead to a domino effect.
Declaw petition Washington DC. Photo of Capitol Hill by VinothChandar and photo of Persian cat copyright Helmi Flick.
An interesting point was made by the person who set up the petition. There was a recent criminal prosecution of a person who tried to declaw his kittens himself. He made a grizzly mess of it and caused substantial damage and pain. His actions were deemed criminal: animal cruelty.
There is a fine difference between what he did and what veterinarians do. Vets cause a hell of a lot of pain but administer pain killers. Vets don’t get it right fairly often and leave the cat disabled and mentally damaged. Is there that much difference between DIY declaw and Professional declaw from a criminal standpoint?
The law seems to be saying that declawing is illegal but it is OK if vets do it. It is a very ambiguous legal situation, which is flawed, in my opinion.
Anyway, there is no harm in signing up to the petition. It’ll only take a few minutes and something just may happen.
This is the webpage. The link opens a new window or tab.
Ban declawing everywhere.
Yes, a ban is long overdue. Declawing is so out of touch with modern life and what should be considered decent.
YES Isatoba declawing should be banned worldwide and we against it won’t rest untii it is!
It’s OK Michael, it said waiting to be moderated as it sometimes does, I know it’s not your fault and my comments will come on eventually.
It annoys me but computer software is not perfect. There are glitches. However, it is necessary because for every real comment I receive at least 10 are spam.
If I had a rant about spam there would be no more room left on this page – I’ll stick to lawns, it’s more practical 🙂
Thanks for this article Michael, it’s already bringing in more signatures, names I recognise. Well done to the person who started the petition.
If declawing gets banned in Washington DC it will be a huge step forward for the anti declaw movement and as you say it may have a domino effect.
That man was rightly prosecuted for mangling those kittens toes, but many times vets leave cats toes in a dreadful state, they should be prosecuted too!
We’ve heard awful stories, poor ‘Stella no feet’ for one who lost her paws because of a botched declaw op, stories all the time of cats developing deformed legs and feet years after the surgery, cats limping their entire lives from being declawed as kittens.
How can it be right that vets MUST know what they are doing yet still legally do it?
It’s just too HORRIBLE that it isn’t banned worldwide!
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I love all petitions that have the goal of getting rid of declawing. By the way I have no idea why your comment was not published immediately. It appears to be a failure of the program that runs the comments.
Some people left some dumbass comments on there about how it should be done by a pro so I gave them all apiece of my mind in the comments below.
Great. Well done Marc. You’re a great advocate and Warrior cat 😉
Great – I will sign it right now. Thanks. It has a good basis and timing.