The Paw Law
Photo by Robert in Toronto
In the year 2016 what became known as the Paw Law was firmly established. There had been much argument and upset particularly from the DPs (see Declawing Disconnect for a definition of “DP”). Below are extracts of the Paw Law, the true title of which is the Domestic Animals Welfare Act 2015.
General Provisions
Section 1. This Act shall be known and may be cited as the “Domestic Animals Welfare Act”
Whereas the all party general committee on domestic animal welfare has concluded that the act of declawing is detrimental to felis catus with no benefit to the electorate other than the selfish desire to protect furniture.
{sections excluded}
Under these circumstances, the General Assembly finds that the welfare of domestic animals requires regulating in the interests of all domesticated animals.
Section 2 Definitions.
For the purposes of this Act, the phrase, “domestic animals” shall exclude livestock. Schedule 2 below lists the domesticated animals protected by this Act.
{this schedule includes cats both the domestic cat and wild cats that have been domesticated}
A “protected animal” is one that is commonly domesticated.
A person is “responsible for the animal” if they are in charge of it.
The Act
Clause 1 Unnecessary suffering - A person commits an offence if:
- an act of his, or a failure of his to act, causes an animal to suffer and he is responsible for the animal,
- an act, or failure to act, of another person causes the animal to suffer, and
- the suffering is unnecessary.
A test case was brought before the Supreme Court shortly after the Act came into force. It was declared unanimously that declawing was an offence under clause 1 the Act.
Veterinarians were forced to make dramatic changes to their work practices. They inevitably found alternative streams of financial profit and cynically began to preach what was the diametric opposite to what they had extensively practiced a couple of years before. They gave seminars in safe claw clipping and on the welfare of the domestic cat much to their displeasure. They suffered large financial loss and many went under to the pleasure of a lot of CPs (see Declawing disconnect).
The domestic cat was immeasurably safer, happier and lived in a more normal world but he or she realised that there was still a long way to go before there would be true harmony. The DPs didn’t know what harmony meant. The Paw Law had finally arrived.
