These neighbouring, and I have to say relatively enlightened, states of the USA are in the middle of deciding whether to ban the declawing of cats.

There is quite a lot of opposition to an outright ban not least from the veterinarians. Also a narrow majority of citizens of these states would possibly say that it is up the cat owner to decide because declawing is entrenched in the culture (see poll below). However allowing cat owners to decide has failed miserably over decades for the simple reason that the cat owner relies on the veterinarian and she or he will recommend declawing or at least not argue against it.

Declawing poll New Jersey

However, it is nice to know that at the date of this post two states are discussing the banning of declawing. I’d hope that the anti-declaw campaigners can declare a success from at least one of the two in the not to distant future. Is it significant that these two states are adjacent to each other and in the northeast of the country? They are on the opposite side of the country to California which lead the way on banning declawing.

There are eight cities in the USA (all in California) where declawing is banned. It would be a tremendous step forward if a state banned the operation. I believe that it would be so significant that it would spell the beginning of the end for this nasty and unnecessary veterinary procedure.

Then one day in 100 years time Americans could look back at the era of cat declawing and say, “that was a funny and inhumane time, we actually believed then that declawing was a good thing”. In the same way that Californians can look back at a time when, for instance, women did not have the right to vote (pre-1911). It seems bizarre now that women were barred from voting and yet before 1911, in California, that’s the way it was.

In 2100 declawing cats will seem equally bizarre.