Cat Declawing in England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland
by Michael
As I understand it cat declawing in England and Wales is illegal under section 5 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (AWA). This section is headed "mutilation". Section 5 allows tail docking, sadly. The Irish veterinary association, Veterinary Ireland (VI), support a complete ban on the docking of puppies' tails, incidentally.
Ireland
It is also unethical under VI regulations to declaw cats. This is what they say:
"While commonly performed in the USA it is not performed in Ireland and any Veterinary Practitioner performing this act would clearly be open to disciplinary action by the Veterinary Council of Ireland."
Although the VI seek:
"a complete and specific ban on all other acts of mutilation in animals"
This I presume refers to legislation.
England
What is interesting is that there is absolutely no mention of cat declawing on the British Veterinary Association (BVA) website. Or if there is it is very well hidden or their custom search engine can't find it."Britain" means England, Wales and Scotland.
Section 5 of the AWA states that an appropriate national authority can override the effective parts of section 5.
"the appropriate national authority may specify by regulations"
I will presume that the BVA may be such an authority. So on the basis that I have not missed something cat declawing is banned in England and Wales under the AWA - section 5 referred to above. Laws passed in parliament only have jurisdication over England and Wales. So what of Northern Ireland and Scotland?
Northern Ireland
The veterinary association of NI makes no reference to declawing. The relevant legislation is probably: Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 1972. This makes no specific references except to animal cruelty.
I believe that cat declawing does not take place in NI at all. It is not part of the culture and that is probably the best protection for cats.
Scotland
Animal welfare is governed by The Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act (AHWA). Section 20 prohibits declawing as it is a "procedure which involves interference with the sensitive tissues or bone structure of the animal" and it is not "carried out for the purpose of medical treatment of an animal".
The law in Scotland is very similar to that in England and Wales and may have preceded the English law.
USA
I hope this helps people who want to make comparisons with the USA. What is very interesting is that in the USA there is no restrictions except for the specific city laws recently passed that have been made explicitly to ban declawing. It would be nice to think that these brave and enlightened city councils started the process of the creation of national laws drafted in general terms that effectively banned cat declawing in the USA (see for example, The Paw Law). There are many posts on declawing cats on this site.
From Cat Declawing in England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland to Declawing Cats
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The British penchant for worrying more about animals than about each other continues to amaze. My partner has a fully-clawed cat which never goes outdoors because of his illness, but I was shocked beyond words to see that this politically irrelevant issue has reached the level of NATIONAL LAW in the UK. What some soft-hearted flat-worlders call “mutilation” more sensible people call “protecting children, visitors, and furnishings.” A cat that is in no danger of fighting other cats and does not have to kill its own food does not need front claws, which simply enable it to attack people, climb all over the place, and destroy stuff. I suppose this is the bargain cat owners must make: the trade-off between safety and having a pet. In a country obsessed with “health and safety” regulations, it’s amazing that people are allowed to have pets at all.
Sorry, but you have that wrong. We, Brits don’t worry more about animals than humans. We just like to treat animals in the same way we treat the human animal: us. What is wrong with that? It is less arrogant and more tolerant and decent. Also, it is not just the Brits who do this. Take any European country and millions of Americans too. We are all of the same opinion.
Sorry, OMG, we are just on a completely different plane of thinking. People who hate declawing are way in advance of people who think declawing is alright. Someone like you won’t exist in 50 years. You will be a dinosaur. You are a dinosaur living in the modern world and you are out of place. And you are arrogant and personally, I despise you.
‘A cat that is in no danger of fighting other cats and does not have to kill its own food does not need front claws, which simply enable it to attack people, climb all over the place, and destroy stuff’
We are talking about little furry domestic pets aren’t we and not wild tigers? My cats and other peoples cats I know, don’t attack people, destroy stuff etc….
You are a very ignorant person OMG, had you bothered to do even the slightest research on cats claws you would see why they are essential to their health and fulfilment. Are you one of those thick idiots who think declawing means removing the claw as you would a person’s nail? If so you are completely wrong, the entire last toe joint is amputated, so declawing means TEN amputations which is extremely painful to the cat and disables him for life! A declawed cat can’t walk as a cat walks, can’t exercise, has difficulty balancing when jumping, he faces a lifetime of physical and mental problems from the cruel surgery. If you already knew that and still think declawing is acceptable then you are a cruel cold hearted excuse for a human being.
Either way I agree with Michael, I despise you!
As for worrying more about animals than each other, some of us have brains larger than the pea brain you obviously have, because we can and do care about other people as well as animals, we are not self important fools like you OMG…..why don’t you go and do something to help others rather than come here blathering on a subject you know nothing about.
Declawing will soon be banned worldwide as the animal abuse it is!