San Francisco Votes to Ban Cat Declawing

By a 9-2 vote, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed a measure Tuesday making it a crime for pet owners to declaw their cats. Violators face a potential jail sentence of six months and fine of up to $1,000.

The Los Angeles City Council plans to vote on a similar resolution Friday.

"Declawing cats is cruel and a form of torture," said the San Francisco measure's author, Ross Mirkarimi, who represents the city's 5th District. "It has not proven to be medically necessary."

In part, Mirkarimi and his counterparts brought the matter to a vote in order to beat a Jan. 1, 2010, deadline that prohibits further cat declawing bans.

Feline onychectomy, the medical term for declawing, is already illegal in Norfolk, Va.; West Hollywood, Calif.; and 25 countries around the world, including most of Europe.




Some surprising forces opposed Mirkarimi's proposal to ban feline onychectomy, including the California Veterinary Medical Association and the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"We're concerned about cats ending up abandoned," said SFSPCA President Jan McHugh-Smith. "Three [million] to 4 million animals are euthanized each year in the United States, and 70 percent of them are cats."

Without the option to remove a cat's claws, McHugh-Smith fears that some owners will end up abandoning their pets. Still, the SPCA is no fan of declawing cats, and offers classes to pet owners on how to get kitties to stop scratching the furniture.

"What I like about the measure is that people are getting educated about declawing," McHugh-Smith said.

Los Angeles City Council Member Paul Koretz, who introduced a measure similar to San Francisco's, takes issue with the notion that a ban on cat declawing will translate into an increase of strays.

"The cruel irony is that nothing is further from the truth," Koretz said. "Declawing actually leads to cats being abandoned, because it causes instant behavioral problems in cats. They stop using their litter boxes because of their pained paws so they urinate all over their owner's house. And they can no longer use their paws as a line of defense and become biters."

The California Veterinary Medical Association, a group that represents 6,100 veterinarians in the state and lobbied for the January deadline preventing further declawing measures, also argues such laws will lead to increased population of homeless cats. It also does not view declawing as inherently inhumane or cruel, and notes that recent surgical developments have reduced the pain cats experience because of the procedure.

"The decision to declaw a cat should remain between the owner in consultation with his or her veterinarian on a case-by-case basis," the group said in a written statement.

As to the worries raised by the SFSPCA that an outright ban may result in a rise of abandoned cats, Mirkarimi responded, "I don't dismiss the fears. We can always modify the law if there are unintended consequences."

The ban now heads to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's desk for a signature, though the 9-2 margin of the vote means that the measure would withstand a veto attempt. Look for a jump in scratching post sales.