ALBANY – The State Assembly is moving forward with a measure that would make the declawing of cats against the law.
Pet owners may believe they are preventing their cats from ripping up the furniture or curtains by declawing them, but the actual surgical removal of the last bone on the front feet could cause other problems for cats, said Brian Shapiro of Saugerties, the New York State Director for the Humane Society of the United States.
“If a cat doesn’t have its fingers, which is its first form of exploring and defense they can become mouthy using their mouth and they tend to bite more,” Shapiro said. “They also tend to have litter box avoidance because imagine having a pebble in your shoe all the time. That’s how many of these cats feel when they scratch in the litter box.”
The declawing prohibition cleared the Assembly Codes Committee on a 17 to 1 vote and is headed to the Rules Committee before going to the floor for a final vote.
