Yes, declawing is a crime in Los Angeles, if it is done for non-therapeutic purposes, which accounts for 99.99% of all cases. The law came into force on 17th November 2009.
Allegedly Mission Animal Care Center were in breach of the law. This has been reported on the Paw Project Facebook site yesterday, 6th June 2013. Note: I have used the word “allegedly” to protect PoC in case something has been misrepresented.
We are told that the clinic was caught performing illegal declaw surgery by a representative from an LA City Council member and a law enforcement officer who visited the facility. It seems they were caught red handed. A straight bust.
The ordinance (the law) in question states that the crime of declawing for non-therapeutic purposes is a misdemeanor. What is a misdemeanor? It is a low level crime with sentencing to match. However, the sentencing on conviction for a standard misdemeanor in California is a maximum six-month county jail sentence and a maximum $1,000 fine1. Yet the clinic owners will only get an official warning from the city.
The interesting part of the criminal legislation that makes declawing a crime (Ordinance No: 180986) is that the following people are guilty of the crime on conviction:
- the person or persons performing the surgery;
- the person or persons who assisted;
- the person or persons who “procured” the surgery – this means the cat’s owner or anyone who assisted the owner in procuring the surgery or who, for example, paid for the surgery. It covers a wide range of people, potentially.
On the basis that the allegation is true, what the hell happened to the cat’s owner? It appears that he or she has not been mentioned. Potentially, everyone at the vet’s clinic plus the cat’s owner could have been jailed for 6 months and fined $1,000. Yet nothing. As I understand it, no one was charged with the crime of declawing.
This is a big mistake as it sends very much the wrong signal to others. I sense that enforcement of this very important ground breaking legislation is not being taken seriously enough.
Apparently neither the owner nor the clinic’s staff including the vet had heard of the law banning declawing in Los Angeles! It is impossible to believe that and, in any case, it is not a defense to a crime.
Polite message to LA officials: Well done in creating the law. Please ensure that you fully enforce it because if not the law will become an ass and quite pointless.
Note: My thanks to Ruth aka Kattaddorra for showing me the news.
Ref:
- shouselaw.com
I just checked their website and they don’t advertise declawing currently, which is commonsense. But I sense that they respond with a Yes if someone asks about declawing. They could merge declawing with vaccinations or neutering to mask it.
If the authorities were taking the law seriously a prosecution and conviction could and should have happened with a proper sentence (at least financial). The owner should have been punished too.
You have hit the nail on the head. “Law” means nothing really unless people want to comply with it and the majority of people in the USA don’t want to give up declawing. It is a way of life. It is normal, the way things should be.
Absolutely, there is no doubt that they knew and know the law but just flouted it – ignored it knowing they could get away with it. It is almost as if the ban started a black market in declawing. The LA ban on declawing might have pushed it underground. The biggest problem is enforcement. The LA councillors make the law but do the police support it and enforce it?
I can’t believe they got away with it by saying they didn’t know declawing is banned, as Ruth rightly says we know about it here in England thousands of miles away, so if the vet practice in question “didn’t know” then they’re obviously not keeping up with the latest information not only on this but on veterinary practice in general,I’ve never worked for a vet but I’ve worked for a pharmacist and he had his nose in a professional magazine every week because as he said he couldn’t afford not to be up to date with legislation and new products. Surely vets are the same and if not they should be closed down. I don’t believe for one minute that not a single person in that clinic nor the owner knew declawing was banned. They’ve all got away with it except the cat(s) that have been abused. For shame 🙁
I am not surprised that this has happened at all. Surely ALL vets in the LA area affected by the ban should have been informed of this by the authorities when the ban was implemented?
With the current economic climate, owners not taking animals to vets for routine care and treatment, the market is wide open for unscrupulous, greedy and immoral vets to be pushing this barbaric surgery to ignorant owners in the hope of making money. The vets clearly don’t give a fig about the law at all.
I think thousands and thousands of beautiful, innocent cats have been mutilated and crippled since this weak law was created. It doesn’t look as if much inforcement has happened.
Education is the key. To owners, to vets to everyone, especially children, who might stand a chance of growing up into decent human beings who do not treat animals like objects, to be abused by vets (for money) who should never, ever be in practice.
The ASPCA and the AVMA are both wealthy enough to have ensured that every vet was notified of this law and I don’t think either did this. HSUS could cough up a million or so dollars to ensure that every vet is notified too, but hey ho, better that money sits in the bank than it benefitting the welfare of animals.
I agree Ruth – education and making sure the next generation grows up knowing it’s wrong – is the main and most effective tactic in the long run. It has to be made known again and again until people just stop doing it.