Cat Declawing Ban Legislation Passes Assembly Committee

A bill that would ban the act of declawing cats, except in a few exceptions, gained momentum this week following it’s passage in the Assembly Business and Professions Committee.

Assembly Bill 867, authored by Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose), would prohibit 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 require the veterinarian to also provide a copy of the statement to the owner of the cat.

Assemblyman Lee wrote the bill because of the surgical and health complications that come with declawing cats. In a statement, 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.

“Mutilating healthy cats for human convenience is cruel and inhumane,” said Assemblyman Lee. “Cat declawing is a permanent disfiguring surgery that’s equivalent to removing a person’s fingers at the top knuckle. This is a common sense bill reinforcing that cat declawing goes against ethical treatment standards for animals. It is an outdated, cruel, and unethical surgical procedure that results in lifelong disfigurement and pain. Many countries have already outlawed this inhumane practice. AB 867 shows the nation and world that California does not endorse surgical mutilation performed electively on healthy cats for human convenience.”

Groups like the Humane Society also have backed the bill, albeit while noting that some exceptions are necessary for the health of the cat, including to remove cancerous growths.

“The Humane Society of the United States opposes declawing except for the rare cases when it is necessary for medical purposes, such as the removal of cancerous nail bed tumors,” explained the Humane Society.

An amended AB 867

Nonetheless, the bill has received some opposition. The California Veterinary Medical Association has said that the vast majority of vets have already stopped declawing without the bill, and that the bill would both limit options for pet owners in case of a needed declawing and that activists could more easily find vets that still practice declawing and harass them as a result.

“We suspect that the only reason this language is in the bill is so that animal activists can obtain this information, the names of veterinarians through a public records request, and target our hard-working professionals,” said CVMA lobbyist to the Assembly Committee earlier this month.

The opposition was also seen in the final tally of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee. While it passed 13-0, 5 Assembly members chose not to vote on the bill, hinting at significant opposition later in the Assembly and the Senate. As a gesture to get more support, Lee previously changed the language of the bill through an amendment before the vote, signaling out the bill to affect only cats and not other animals. Primarily this included dogs, who sometimes go through a dewclaw removal. The American Kennel Club of American opposed the bill in that form, along with several other lawmakers, leading to the change.

“In advance of the April 1 hearing, the bill has been amended to address the AKC’s concerns that the original text would have essentially prevented veterinarians from removing a dog’s dewclaws. AB 867 now only applies to cats,” said the AKC in a statement. “The AKC thanks the bill’s author, Assemblymember Alex Lee, for his attention to AKC’s concerns and to the welfare of dogs.”

With the bill growing in support as a result of the amendment, AB 867 is expected to have more support at the next Assembly Committee.