The AVMA have carried out their five-yearly review of declawing and decided to toughen their declawing policy by discouraging it (big deal!) but fall short of banning it.
The updated policy makes another small step towards a ban which they may have the guts to enact at some time in the future (but too slowly for hundreds of thousands of cats).
The new policy:
…discourages the declawing of cats as an elective procedure and supports non-surgical alternatives to the procedure.
The fact that their veterinarian members already know this but still declaw for the money makes the change in policy pointless.
The AVMA is out is step with New York State where it is banned and Canada were large sections of the country ban it. Denver has banned it as have 8 Californian cities. New Jersey is considering a ban.
The American Animal Hospital Association and the American Association of Feline Practitioners ban declawing.
The problem for the AVMA is that they have no power over the vets. Perhaps they have no power to ban declawing. If they did perhaps the vets would just tell them to F off. It appears that the AVMA is a toothless representative of America’s veterinarians who do as they are told by their members. By and large American vets still want to declaw cats while ignoring the grossly unethical issues that the operation presents to them.
P.S. This is an opinion article. I am commenting on the news provided on this occasion by Today’s Veterinary Business.com
SOME MORE ON DECLAWING:
Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.