The Virginia Mercury online newspaper tells me that the legislature of Virginia has debated a ban on cat declawing under House Bill 1354: Prohibiting declawing cats. This is very welcome news to people like me as anybody who reads this website will know. The bill is before the governor for signing off as I understand it.
The politician who proposed the bill is, I understand, Del. Marty Martinez, D-Loudoun. As is usual for all animal welfare laws banning declawing, this bill concerns the banning of non-therapeutic declawing.
Almost all cat declawing operations are for non-therapeutic reasons
There is slight difference in this and a complete ban because sometimes albeit extremely rarely it might be necessary to declaw a cat for therapeutic i.e. medical reasons. That said, 99.9% of the operations to declawing cat are carried out for non-therapeutic reasons meaning for the convenience of the cat’s owner to prevent damage to furniture or perhaps being scratched by their cat.
If the bill becomes law, it would allow, according to Marty Martinez, the state Board of Veterinarians to strip veterinarians who perform the declawing procedure of their licence if they think it is warranted.
Some American veterinarians are stopping declawing cats voluntarily
The reports are that there is a gradual drift away from declawing cats voluntarily by veterinarians in America. That’s probably because there are, as I recall, 10 cities where it is banned and a couple of states. Let’s hope Virginia is the third. The mood is shifting as a lot has been written about the damage done by the operation and its immoral nature.
Education on cat declawing needed
As is usual, there are some politicians you don’t really understand declawing or they are unsympathetic about how declawing affects a domestic cat. Perhaps they don’t understand that a high percentage of declawing operations are botched because they are carried out to quickly or that many cats are disabled by the operation or the become bitters. And it appears that some politicians fail to grasp the unethical aspect of the operation because it’s in breach of the veterinarian’s oath.
Some politicians might argue that if declawing is banned in the state, people will surrender their cats to shelters. As I recall this has proved to be incorrect in the two states where there is a statewide ban namely New York and Maryland.
There is still quite a lot of misconceptions and lack of knowledge about declawing particularly among politicians.
Martinez has first-hand experience
Marty Martinez speaks from first-hand experience however. He said that he and his wife made the “biggest mistake” that they’ve made when they decided to declawed their first cat. He said that the cat was ‘never the same’ after the procedure.
He added that, “I felt I could never do that again to any animal. I am an animal lover, and anything we can do to prevent any kind of cruelty to animals is something I support.”
The bill has passed both chambers with a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in support and it will now be reviewed by Governor Glenn Youngkin.
RELATED: Declawing banned in Madison, WI tonight. Effective immediately.
There are literally hundreds of articles on cat declawing on this website with many of them about banning the procedure. It is a goldmine of information on declawing. Why? Because I literally detest the procedure, the thought of it, the agony it causes, the wilful mutilation of vulnerable kittens by arguably and allegedly greedy vets who conduct the operation against their better judgement and against their oath.
