Assemblyman Alex Lee. (Photo: votealexlee.com)
Cat Declawing Ban Bill Passes Assembly
AB 867 still faces considerable opposition heading into the Senate
By Evan Symon, May 3, 2025 2:55 am
A bill to ban the act of declawing cats, except in a few exceptions, passed the Assembly with a 72-0 unanimous vote.
Originally a bill aimed at the declawing of all animals, opposition by the American Kennel Club of America (AKC), the California Veterinary Medical Association, and several lawmakers threatened to make Assembly Bill 867, authored by Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose), hard to pass. In particular, the necessity of dog dewclaw removal and worry over activist harassment of the few vets who still offer cat declawing as an emergency option gave many pause. However, amendments by Lee made the bill cat only, with more specified provisions for legal situations in which declawing could be performed, erasing most opposition overnight.
As a result, AB 867 now prohibits a person from performing a declawing or similar procedures on any cat unless the person is licensed as a veterinarian pursuant to the act and the veterinarian is performing the declawing for a therapeutic purpose. AB 867 would also require a veterinarian, if they determine declawing is necessary for a therapeutic purpose, to file a written statement with the board that includes, among other information, the purpose for performing the procedure, and would additionally require the veterinarian to provide a copy of the statement to the owner of the cat.
Assemblyman Lee wrote the bill earlier this year because of the surgical and health complications that come with declawing cats. In a statement earlier this month, Lee even compared declawing to people having their to knuckle removed as an equivalent. In addition, AB 867 would be following the numerous citywide bans in California, including West Hollywood, which passed the first citywide ban in the country in 2003. Should it pass, California would join New York, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia as places in the Country where a ban is in effect.
The persistence by Lee paid off. It passed both the Assembly Business and Professions Committee and the Assembly Appropriations Committee heading into this week. However, opposition remained. Multiple Assemblymembers, mostly Republicans, opted to not vote on the bill. The same occurred again this week where, while it passed the Assembly 72-0, 7 Assemblymembers, once again mostly GOP, opted to not vote on the matter. Despite this, Lee remained confident of passage in the Senate, even with a significant number of lawmakers still not being for it. As further outreach, Lee offered a number of non-surgical alternatives.
“Cat declawing is a cruel and barbaric surgical procedure that causes lifelong disfigurement and pain,” said Lee. “Mutilating healthy cats merely for convenience is inhumane and unethical. It’s the equivalent of removing a person’s fingers at the top knuckle. Scratching is a natural cat behavior, and non-surgical alternatives are available to address inappropriate behaviors such as nail trimming, soft claw caps, and behavioral training.”
AB 867 is now on the way to the Senate for votes there. According to the bill history, it is currently set to be heard and voted on in the Senate Rules Committee sometime later this Spring.
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Oh thank goodness, I’m so relieved! The future well-being of California entirely depends on this essential legislation! (*eye roll*)
I’m actually ok with this bill, Showandtell. There should now be a bill that prevents doctors from removing people’s trigger fingers. I do agree this issue should not be on the top ten of the legislature’s priorities.
I hear you, Fed Up, and appreciate your comment. I can’t imagine ever de-clawing a cat of mine for non-medical reasons, but can’t this issue be covered by education and awareness instead of always passing a law? Is unnecessary cat de-clawing even a thing anymore in a state that is crawling with animal rights activists of every kind?
As you know many municipalities have already passed such de-clawing bans. How about keeping this local? There are legitimate medical reasons for having to de-claw a cat, after all, and although I know there were amendments to this bill that included exemptions such as untreatable infections and tumors and the like, why must a veterinarian (or cat owner) be subjected to miles of red tape whenever he or she makes a decision that is meant to be in the best interest of an animal’s health?
Drunk-driving Asm Wendy Carrillo proposed the same bill in 2023 but it died in 2024. Why? Every time Asm Alex Lee’s name comes up, or Carrillo’s name comes up I wonder what is really behind their bill proposals. Republicans who were shown as No Vote Registered on this current bill have likely looked at good reasons against a total state ban or maybe even come to the conclusion that it’s enough, already, with the constant nanny state intrusion. Would love to know more about that.
I would respect Asm Alex Lee’s bill a lot more if he had also introduced into the state assembly a BAN on life-changing, health-degrading, sterilizing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone injections, and horrific mutilating surgeries on minor children who have been goaded into changing their sex, as if that were even possible. Since he is a member of the LGBTQA+++ CA legislative caucus I suspect he is all in on such inhumane practices of so-called “gender-affirming care” (the euphemism of the century) when alternative treatment —- or doing nothing at all and simply letting such children grow out of it, which the vast majority do —– is not only possible but is the miles better option. Or maybe he could work on legislation that would significantly pare down or ban most of the oppressively large number of vaccines — whose harmful effects are reasonably suspected but not entirely known —- that children are required to endure before entering public school in California? Or maybe he could work on banning the Covid clot shot, which has been shown to injure, even kill, those who took it having been assured, over and over and over again, that the shot was “safe and effective?”
Yes, Showandtell. You have correctly listed many of the real-life evils that elected democrats either sidestep or endorse. I believe they do things like Lee’s bill so they can say “Look at me. I’m protecting cats!” and hope the rest of us will ignore their negligence and evil.
I had the same thought as you, Fed Up, that ‘they can say “Look at me. I’m protecting cats!”‘ as if it will “redeem” or blot out or distract from the other negligence. These people!
Assemblyman Alex Lee is a queer. His prideful friend’s words, not mine.
He does not speak for me or anyone I know.
Screw him and the furry clawed cat he rode in on.
Has he ever lifted anything heavier than a pen, a Gameboy Joystick or his boyfriend’s Joystick in his entire life? He obviously hasn’t loaded too many hay barns with 50 tons of alfalfa.
What a lightweight SoiBoy. No wonder California is doomed.
Works for me, Ted!
“He obviously hasn’t loaded too many hay barns with 50 tons of alfalfa.”
That’s priceless, Ted! You get a 9.8 from the Romanian judge.
Ha ha
I looked at the roll call vote list.
There were zero “NV”s and those who did not support the bill were listed “Abs”.
A new bill has passed to ban cat declawing, protecting cats from unnecessary pain unless it’s for medical reasons.
I guess cat owners with autoimmune disorders can get turtles, instead.