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Shortly after confirming Charlie Beck as the new Chief of Police, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to ban cat declawing within city limits, joining a group of other cities such as West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
A state law that will go into effect in 2010 will ban cities from banning declawing, hence why so many cities are seeing these new laws. "Given all the problems in California and the state taking money and property taxes from us, it seemed obscene and ridiculous to me that they would tell us how to regulate this," explained Darryl Moore, a city councilman in Berkeley, where a ban was passed last week, to the New York Times.
Banning declawing is not without controversy. "It is not mutiliation. It is not the equivalent of taking off a person's fingers," said Dr. Martin Mackie to the Daily News. "They make it seem much more dastardly than it is." He says age is a big factor in a cat's behavior.
Breaking the law and getting caught will earn someone a misdemeanor. However, how the law will be enforced is unknown.
