States ban cat declawing
News and headlines for April 20 - 27, 2024
In other news: Virginia has become the third state to ban declawing. A journal article is cruelly calling for abolishing animal shelters and leaving the welfare of dogs and cats to whatever fate befalls them on the streets. Animal control officers from Douglas County, AZ, and an employee of the Cochise County Humane Society dumped shelter cats in the desert, knowing they could die; they did. Sugar Land, TX, pound staff are accused of retaliation when a Good Samaritan complains about being told to abandon a stray dog where she found him. “California law does not require public animal shelters to publish euthanasia [kill] data, but that soon could change.” Sales of plant-based meat are declining. A study of vegan dogs finds that they are healthy. After receiving a notice of eviction over allegations of cruelty, the owners of Miami’s Seaquarium filed a lawsuit in Federal Court to stop their lease’s termination. Consciousness is the rule in the animal kingdom, not the exception.
These are some of the stories making headlines in animal protection:
Virginia has become the third state to ban declawing. “New York was the first state to ban declawing cats in 2019, followed by Maryland in 2022.” Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Senate also overwhelmingly approved a ban. The House will now take up the bill in that state.
This is good news as declawed cats are at significantly greater risk for back pain, not using the litter box, aggression (scratching/biting), and excessive grooming (barbering). In addition, studies have found that they would be at even greater risk for pain if bone fragments were left due to “poor or inappropriate surgical techniques,” which occurs in over 60% of cases.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, banning the practice does not lead to cats losing their homes. A study found that “there was no statistically significant increase in cats relinquished to the provincial shelter system for destructive scratching behavior following the implementation of the ban” because “most owners who declawed their cat did so for prevention of, rather than in response to, destructive scratching behavior.” As such, the study authors concluded that “owners can manage normal scratching behavior and retain cats in their homes without needing to resort to onychectomy [declawing].”
Kristen Hassen and Katja Guenther call for abolishing animal shelters and leaving the welfare of dogs and cats to whatever fate befalls them on the streets. They do so based on a revisionist history of the humane movement, anti-capitalist dogma, and racist claims. They are wrong on all counts.
Animal control officers from Douglas, AZ, and an employee of the Cochise County Humane Society dumped shelter cats in the desert, knowing the cats could die. And they did.
The investigation began when a man walking his dog noticed several dead animals, including a cat, inside a garbage bag.
That man went on to say he had seen the animal control officers around his home at least four times. He said that was unusual because he lived in the county, not the city.
The man, who did not want to be named, said when he asked the animal control officers about what they were doing, the animal control officers “made up some story about a local rancher allowing the cats to be let free on his property.”
The animal control officers admitted to dumping cats…
One of the men involved was a consultant to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, advising “on animal care best practices” and offering “guidance regarding the humane treatment of animals.” It is not the first time HSSA has been in the news based on the actions of questionable practices.
The director and another senior manager of the Humane Society of Southern Arizona (HSSA) were suspended pending an investigation by the Board of Directors after transferring over 250 small animals to a company that sells “both live and frozen animals for snake feed.”
HSSA says the director has been fired, and the program manager has resigned. The rabbits, hamsters, and other small animals were sent to HSSA from the San Diego Humane Society in California on the promise that HSSA would find them adoptive homes. Instead, HSSA immediately transferred them to a family running the snake food business and falsely claimed they were adopted into homes through a rescue group.
HSSA says they terminated their relationship with the person abandoning cats to die in the desert.
Similarly, a young woman says Sugar Land [TX] Animal Services staff refused to take in a stray dog she found and told her to abandon the dog where she found him. When the woman asked for the supervisor’s name to complain, they asked her to leave and threatened her with arrest for trespassing.
The next day, she says she was visited by animal control officers from the neighboring county where she lives after Sugar Land employees filed a complaint that her own dogs were kept in “poor conditions.” The officers inspected her home and left without issuing any citations since the animals were not neglected. Since they had never seen her dogs, she believes that Sugar Land employees were either trying to intimidate her or retaliate, both of which are illegal.
This is also not the first time Sugar Land has been in the news for regressive practices. In 2022, City officials in Sugar Land fired five shelter employees after they killed 38 animals without following proper procedures. The shelter’s manager resigned before being terminated.
The mayor was unmoved by the allegations against the staff, inexplicably calling them the “best of the best” and saying they have his “unconditional support.” Unconditional support implies they can never lose that support — even when they tell people to abandon dogs, retaliate against people who complain about illegal practices, or engage in inhumane conduct. No wonder they feel they can be reckless with the lives of animals — and people.
