N.J. may become first state to outlaw declawing cats

In 1952, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association published a letter to the editor from a Chicago veterinarian named A.G. Misener, who described a surgery his practice had been performing on cats: the removal of their front claws.

“This is a relatively simple surgical procedure,” Misener wrote, “and, we believe, a practical measure.”

That letter was the genesis of what Minnesota veterinarian Ron Gaskin, who considers himself a historian of cat declawing, calls a “Chicago urban legend” — a surgery that was dreamed up in one clinic and ended up being adopted by practitioners across the United States.

“It was never investigated for long-term safety, or whether it generated pain later on in life,” Gaskin said of declawing’s origins. “It was never researched that way.”

More than six decades after Misener’s letter was published, many cat owners continue to have the family feline declawed, chiefly driven by a desire to prevent kitty from scratching up the furniture. But the surgery is the subject of a growing divide in the veterinary community, with critics saying it amounts to a painful amputation that can lead to behavior problems in cats and others arguing that it prevents some owners from euthanizing scratch-happy cats. About 20 countries, mostly in Europe, have banned the procedure, as have San Francisco, Los Angeles and six other California cities. Some veterinary clinics refuse to perform the surgery.

Now the debate has reached the statehouse in New Jersey, where the General Assembly last month approved a bill that would add declawing, or onychectomy, to the list of criminal animal cruelty offenses. The measure, if passed by the state senate, would make New Jersey the first to impose a statewide declaw ban; New York is considering a similar law. But the bill is facing strong opposition in Trenton.

“I’m a cat owner myself, and there’s no way we could ever take away the cat’s claws,” New Jersey Assemblyman Troy Singleton, D, the bill’s sponsor, said in an interview after the vote. “Not only is it barbaric, it’s an inhumane thing to do.”

Critics, including some veterinarians, agree. They say owners who choose to declaw their cats are blithely unaware of the gravity, apparently thinking it’s not unlike what happens when we humans whip out the clippers to trim our toenails.

“It’s a total misnomer - it should really be called de-knuckling,” said Jennifer Conrad, a veterinarian who is founder of the Paw Project, which campaigns against declawing.