The City Council hearing comes after seven cities across the state banned the practice within their limits. Last month, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Berkeley and San Francisco approved ordinances banning declawing, with exceptions for therapeutic purposes. Culver City officials this week passed a similar ban effective Dec. 30.
The proposed ban in Burbank, which would take effect immediately, closely mirrors a 2003 West Hollywood ordinance that was ultimately upheld after the California Medical Veterinary Assn. challenged it.
“The declawing of cats is one of the most painful surgeries that is routinely performed in all of veterinary medicine, and yet 30% of [veterinarians], according to the scientific literature, are using no pain medication whatsoever,” said Jennifer Conrad, founder of the Santa Monica-based Paw Project, which rehabilitates declawed lions, tigers, cougars and jaguars. “That’s rather ironic considering that declawing is used as a way of testing pain medications by drug companies because it is so predictably painful.”
In the procedure, veterinarians use a scalpel, clippers or laser to cut off the last bone on each toe of a cat’s feet.
“Because each digit is amputated through the joint, this procedure is painful and requires the appropriate treatment of pain before, during and after the procedure,” according to the American College of Veterinary Surgeons’ website.
Drawbacks of the surgery often include behavioral troubles such as biting and not using a litter box, supporters said.
The proposed ordinance does allow veterinarians to determine whether declawing is medically necessary to address illnesses, injuries or abnormalities in the claw.
Los Angeles veterinarian Robert Goldman maintained that the city down the road would not want to be known as one that invites the cruel practice.
