Commonsense legislation that would have banned the unnecessary and cruel practice of declawing cats statewide in California died in committee on April 23. AB 1230 would have made California the first state in the country to ban the procedure.

Declawing involves the surgical removal of each of the cat's toes back to the first knuckle and has been called one of the most excruciatingly painful and routinely performed surgeries in all of veterinary medicine.

But why would a law designed to protect animals fail and who would oppose such a law?

The powerful California Veterinary Medical Association - that's who. The Association’s representatives fought the proposal at every turn. It's shameful that some veterinarians would put profits in front of the health and safety of the animals they take an oath to protect.

The California declawing proposal had a medical exemption policy built in for veterinarians to use in cases of where declawing was an absolute medical necessity. However, veterinarians can make a lot of money from the surgery and so some of them just aren't willing to see that revenue stream end.

We want to give special thanks to The Paw Project for working on the legislation and to California Assemblymember Bill Quirk for introducing the bill.

We’ll continue to back efforts to end declawing wherever we can. Please consider a donation to support our work.