Banning declawing: Can a city do what a state cannot?
By Gina Spadafori
July 17, 2007
Yesterday I added AnimalBlawg to the blogroll. It’s well-written, well-argued and thought-provoking. Don’t always agree with everything that’s written there, and in that it’s like Terrierman. I always read him, don’t always agree with him but never feel my time was wasted. Hey, it’s like that dopey (but still true) saying: A mind’s like a parachute: It only works when it’s open.
Anyway … the AnimalBlawg looks at the legal issues behind the California state Court of Appeal’s overturning an earlier court’s ruling that held the city of West Hollywood couldn’t legally ban the declawing of cats. So the ban is back in force.
How this came about had nothing to do with cats and their claws and everything to do with the intersection of government entities. Go read.
I also put Lassie Get Help back in the blogroll. I took it off a while back for lack of activity, but Luisa’s been mighty busy lately!
on ABC NEWS AT 630 est they will have the pet food recall
Comment by Mary Ann — July 17, 2007 @ 2:09 pm
I don’t think it is right that people are telling that people not to declaw their cats.
Comment by jill — July 17, 2007 @ 3:22 pm
The person has a right to declaw their cat without having other people telling them what to do.
Comment by jill — July 17, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Unfortunately cats are viewed as onlyproperty, look at the mess we have with the claims for pet food poisoning. The truth is they are liveing creatures that can feel pain. A cat has a right to not have the tips of it’s ‘fingers’ chopped off! The surgery is not for removing the claws only, but part of the bone for the first digit of that claw.
If any of you doubt the humaneness of declawing please check out these photos:
http://tinyurl.com/2h7uw2
Some vets refuse to preform the surgery, while others charge extra for the a pre-operation Fental patch and then nerve block in addition to anesthesia a to make it less painful for the cat.
Teaching a cat to use provided scratching posts and cardboard scratchers takes time…. and patience to work with the pet. If people claim to love their cat they won’t mutulate their bodies.
Comment by Rose L — July 17, 2007 @ 4:24 pm
Rose - asking this as non-argumentatively as I can - serious question:
If the choice is between a good home (defining this as good food, shelter, needed attention and veterinary care), but the cat HAS to be declawed to live there v.s. the cat dying in a shelter because a home cannot be found, then what do you do?
This is a real question. Regardless of what you think of declawing, if it means less cats die, then what?
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 17, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
As I said in a previous post, I agree with you 100 % Other Pat.
Comment by Jenny — July 17, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
The pictures were gross and now I see how it is done. I did not think it was done that way. I did not think it was that bad. That totally changed my mind about it. The picutres I have seen in other sites were not that bad it was a drawn picture of the surgery.
Comment by jill — July 17, 2007 @ 5:30 pm
Jill, here’s a site that discusses the *several* different ways declaws are performed. The site Rose linked to shows pictures of a “Resco declaw”. Progressive vets don’t really do Resco declaws (despite what the article I’m linking to says) because they take so much extra tissue. A “disarticulating declaw” is surgically more precise, and vets that I know of prefer it.
Anyway, just so you can see that there are other approaches besides what Rose showed:
http://www.marvistavet.com/htm.....tives.html
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 17, 2007 @ 6:15 pm
For anyone interested here’s a link to the CA Penal Code law as it stands now on Declawing:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-.....n=retrieve
Scroll down and look for Penal Code 597.6.
Comment by Barb — July 17, 2007 @ 7:19 pm
I think that’s the way my cat went through and it was not healing right so she had to have a second surgery.
I saw that article and I have read it.;The link below will not work. I would like to see what it has to say but it is not working right.
Comment by jill — July 17, 2007 @ 7:59 pm
Does anyone have the link that has to with the penal code because the link does not work at all. Thank You
Comment by jill — July 17, 2007 @ 8:16 pm
I found it.
Comment by jill — July 17, 2007 @ 8:23 pm
Clip nails - don’t declaw. Many “housecats” have found their way outdoors. They are at a real disadvantage without all their “shivs” for defense, retreat or catching prey.
Comment by PM Hill — July 17, 2007 @ 10:42 pm
Sorry that link to penal code didn’t work. Go to this site: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html
Then check the box next to Penal Code and in the search bar type in 597.6
Comment by Barb — July 17, 2007 @ 10:58 pm
In case my second link doesn’t work, here’s the wording on the ‘declawing’ law:
597.6. (a) (1) No person may perform, or otherwise procure or arrange for the performance of, surgical claw removal, declawing, onychectomy, or tendonectomy on any cat that is a member of an exotic or native wild cat species, and shall not otherwise alter such a cat’s toes, claws, or paws to prevent the normal function of the cat’s toes, claws, or paws.
(2) This subdivision does not apply to a procedure performed solely for a therapeutic purpose.
(b) Any person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period
not to exceed one year, by a fine of ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.
(c) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Declawing” and “onychectomy” mean any surgical procedure in which a portion of the animal’s paw is amputated in order to remove
the animal’s claws.
(2) “Tendonectomy” means a procedure in which the tendons to an animal’s limbs, paws, or toes are cut or modified so that the claws
cannot be extended.
(3) “Exotic or native wild cat species” include all members of the taxonomic family Felidae, except domestic cats (Felis catus or Felis domesticus) or hybrids of wild and domestic cats that are greater than three generations removed from an exotic or native cat. “Exotic or native wild cat species” include, but are not limited to, lions,
tigers, cougars, leopards, lynxes, bobcats, caracals, ocelots, margays, servals, cheetahs, snow leopards, clouded leopards, jungle cats, leopard cats, and jaguars, or any hybrid thereof.
(4) “Therapeutic purpose” means for the purpose of addressing an existing or recurring infection, disease, injury, or abnormal
condition in the claw that jeopardizes the cat’s health, where addressing the infection, disease, injury, or abnormal condition is a
medical necessity.
Comment by Barb — July 17, 2007 @ 11:02 pm
Thank you for the link and it did work and I saved it so I can read it later also.
Comment by jill — July 18, 2007 @ 6:04 am
My cat is an indoor cat that has the run of the house. My cat does not get to go outside because the area I live in has wild animals that have been found in peoples back yards.
Mountain Lions
Bears
oppossums
Raccoons
Coyotes - They are out more even during the day.
Comment by jill — July 18, 2007 @ 6:09 am
There are some cases where the choices are declaw the cat, or the cat has no home.
However, jill, no one can guarantee that their cat will never get out, and a declawed cat is completely defenseless against even relatively small predators, and can’t so easily escape out of the reach of the less agile of them, the way a cat with its claws can.
It’s a very bad idea to declaw a cat. It is not a humane thing to do. There are times when the alternatives are worse, it may sometimes be a necessary thing, but it’s still not a good thing.
Comment by Lis — July 18, 2007 @ 10:48 am
Declawing is extraordinarily inhumane. Sure, I’d probably rather have my fingers chopped off than be killed, but that doesn’t mean my quality of life won’t suffer because I no longer have fingers. Animals are no different than us. Would you have your children’s fingers chopped off if they started scratching themselves, the furniture, and the neighborhood children? Doubtful. There is a way to deal with a cat’s biological need to scratch and that is clipping the claws, providing scratching boxes/posts, or putting nail tips on the claws. There is *never* a good reason to declaw.
Comment by Susan — July 23, 2007 @ 12:17 am
Comment by Susan — July 23, 2007 @ 12:17 am
“There is never a good reason to declaw.”
Well. Not quite true. How about chronic nailbed infections that are not responding to aggressive treatment and threaten to compromise a cat’s overall health as the toxins begin to wear on the body’s organ systems?
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 23, 2007 @ 5:43 am
Now, Pat, you’re just being argumentative. You’re very smart and so very well aware that Susan means “there’s no good reason to declaw for behaviorial problems.”
C’mon, kiddo, let’s not start the week with a flame war, OK?
Comment by Gina Spadafori — July 23, 2007 @ 6:08 am
Gina, I really wasn’t trying to do that at all. You see, MY cat had to be declawed due to a chronic nailbed infection that didn’t respond to ongoing treatment (and oh, I tried - and my cat started running to hide every time she saw me coming because she figured I was just gonna grab her to start cleaning out her nailbeds again). And I struggled with MASSIVE guilt about the decision because of all the “There’s NEVER a good reason to declaw a cat” press. But in the end my vet and I agreed that the declaw was necessary, and my cat is a lot happier and less stressed now.
But I do also believe that the question of “Death v.s. a good home if the owner will only consider a cat that is declawed and is in every other respect a good owner ” to be a worthwhile question. And I don’t believe every cat so declawed suffers miserably. MANY years ago when declawing really wasn’t questioned, I had my cat declawed, and she lived to be 20, and (beyond her post-surgical recovery) was a happy cat who never showed any problem behaviors or pain associated with the procedure.
Yes - I believe that in general, training trumps surgery. But I also don’t like seeing dead cats. It’s just not that “black and white” to me.
I don’t consider this a “flame war”. I consider it an honest and open examination of the question “How do we best save as many cats’ lives as we can?”
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 23, 2007 @ 6:35 am