And now British Columbia bans declawing after eight California cities, Denver and Nova Scotia. I can feel that the anti-declaw movement is on a roll. We now have two provinces in Canada who have banned declawing. British Columbia is a big province on the western coast of Canada. Nova Scotia is on the East Coast. Let’s hope all the territories and provinces in between follow suit as soon as possible.
Pressure On The US
If all of Canada ends up banning declawing then that should put an enormous amount of pressure on America to follow suit. The Vancouver Sun reported that the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia (CVBC) became the second province in Canada to prohibit its members from declawing cats for non-therapeutic purposes. The ban on non-therapeutic declawing takes effect immediately.
Unethical
Nearly all declawing is for non-therapeutic purposes. Only extremely rarely is declawing carried out for medical reasons and in the interest of the cat’s welfare. CVBC admit that “no medical conditions or environmental circumstances of the cat owner justify the declawing of domestic cats” and “there is a consensus among the public and within our profession that declawing cats is an inhumane treatment and ethically unacceptable, similar to other outdated practices such as tail docking and ear cropping” ( CVBC CEO Luisa Hlus – see photo above). I believe Luisa is Registrar and CEO of CVBC.
I love, truly love to read that from a veterinary association. It is a sea change. To admit that it is ethically unacceptable is fantastic. Now let’s think about it: every veterinarian in America who is declawing cats is behaving in an unethical manner. That is in effect what the CVBC is saying. I hope that they take heed of these wise words.
You know, the eight California cities banned declawing years ago. There was a long lull and now we see change coming. We are waiting for New Jersey and New York states to be the next big jurisdictions to ban declawing. For the time being lets revel in those words: NOW BRITISH COLUMBIA BANS DECLAWING!
Your comment gives me reason to be optimistic that there is a gradual change in attitude towards declawing in the US. It will stop one day in the not too distant future. It is impossible to support it. Thanks for all your comments, Gail. I’ll be shelling out more for a cat charity this month 🙂
This is the best news ever! More and more vets in the USA are opting out of declawing cats and offering Soft Paws. My own vet refuses to declaw and anyone who insists on the procedure is politely shown the door. He won’t even give a reference to any vet who may perform declaw. Massachusetts is a pretty progressive state when it comes to animal cruelty; however, they still haven’t banned declaw. They did ban devocalization, thankfully. The wheels of progress move slowly, but at least they’re moving in the right direction. Congratulations to British Columbia!
Completely agree Frances. I would be so much better if the veterinarians stopped voluntarily. It would happen faster and do a lot for public relations. The time has come. I don’t want to see America pushed into it by Canada’s example.
This is fantastic news. Veterinarians in the US need to think long and hard about the suffering they continue to cause to every cat that is declawed. The ethical course of action would be for individual veterinarians to voluntarily eradicate this inhumane procedure from their practice instead of waiting X amount of time for a government mandate telling them to do so. 😭
YES!