Declawing is illegal or considered extremely inhumane in many countries of our world now:
Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Wales and Yugoslavia.
Despite extensive research I’ve been unable to find much information about all the other countries and their stance on declawing. I think maybe in some, the subject of declawing hasn’t been discussed because it has never even been considered to be an option.
I did find one interesting report, that in Singapore declawing is discouraged, so maybe there are more countries where it is discouraged too or where declawing is so rarely asked for that there needs to be no law banning it.
Our Animal Welfare Act 2006 here in the UK makes declawing illegal but I don’t know of any UK vet who would ever consider let alone perform this cruel major surgery on a cat anyway, or any cat caretaker who would ask for it.
It seems to be the USA, mainly North America, also Canada, where declawing is most popular and where some vets are still advertising declawing with discount or along with neutering.
They are of the opinion that it’s kinder to declaw a kitten than an adult cat, they will not admit that this violates the AVMA guidelines that declawing should be a last resort and they will not admit that it violates their sworn oath to cause no animal to suffer.
New petitions keep springing up on the internet from individuals who want declawing banned, it seems that on-line petitions don’t carry much weight, but they do show the strength of feeling of the many people who hate declawing and want to try to stop it.
Slow progress is being made, but some cities in California have already banned declawing: Berkeley, Beverley Hills, Burbank, Culver City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.
Hopefully more might follow suite. Also, it is now illegal for landlords in these states of America to force a tenant to have a cat declawed: California and Rhode Island. The same legislation is pending in: New York and Massachusetts.
The Paw Project and many more individual vets who do not declaw are trying to educate cat caretakers by holding screenings of the Paw Project film. This means that growing number of cat lovers are finding out the truth about how serious declawing is and the many physical and/or mental problems it often causes cats.
One day declawing WILL be banned worldwide but not soon enough for the countless cats doomed to suffer until it is!
Update March 2022: Since this post was published, New York State has banned declawing. Maryland is considering it as has Florida. Denver has banned it. There may be others but these come to mind immediately. There is a gradual change in opinion and the veterinarians are in retreat. They are getting to the stage where they can no longer find excuses for doing it. There are no excuses. The vets find cynical and pathetic reasons.
i think id have to catch a plane to get where michael is as its Quite a distance lol. Plus very expenisve:)
I think we arranged to live in our Cat Village before you joined us here Kylee, so now hoping you will move there too one day:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/Would-You-Like-To-Live-In-A-Cat-Village.html
Ruth that’s another brilliant article notched up on your anti de-clawing bed post! Must have took you ages with the maps and research and its great to use this as a reference point when we comment on other websites. I have saved it to my favourites.
My cats claws give me nothing but pleasure and I rarely get scratched.
Jo I will sign up and comment on your Blog and I won’t be rude I promise 🙂
Thanks Leah, yes it was hard work this one, I must be some sort of self masochist lol
But I still can’t come to terms with why anyone would want their cats declawed, the very thought just makes me feel violent towards them and their vets.
You do more than your share of educating, your article is brilliant!
Thank you. I think thats the thing with me as well I really struggle to appear remotely sane when I hear someone say ‘I give him all the love he needs if he hadn’t of been de-clawed I wouldn’t have been able to keep him so getting this done has kept him in a loving home’ I feel like saying ‘what?? are you mad??’ Its unbelievable what people tell themselves 🙁
It makes me wonder what they will do when declawing is banned and how they think we manage with cats with claws! It’s as if claws are dangerous weapons the way some go on about them tearing the house up and scratching people to bits, I just can’t fathom out the mentality of those people!