Animals · 4 min read
Where is cat declawing banned?
The short answer: declawing is banned in more than 30 countries, every Canadian province, and six US states plus Washington DC, and three of those state bans passed in the last year alone. The longer answer explains why the bans keep spreading, and it starts with what the surgery actually is.
The word declawing sounds like a nail trim. The medical name is onychectomy, and the American Association of Feline Practitioners describes it in one sentence: declawing is an amputation of the third phalanx, the last bone of the toe.
The claw grows from tissue inside that bone, so removing the claw permanently means removing the bone with it. Ten toes, ten amputations. The American Veterinary Medical Association calls it a surgical amputation that causes acute pain and can result in chronic pain, maladaptive behavior, and significant mutilation.
What it does to the cat
Dr. Natasha Wood, chief veterinarian at Long Beach Animal Care Services, put the human equivalent plainly: it is like amputating all a person's fingers and toes at their last knuckle. She also described what comes after: bone spurs can develop at the declaw site, and with each step, declawed cats feel like they are walking on sharp stones.
The research backs the warning. A 2017 study in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery compared 137 declawed cats with 137 intact cats. The declawed group had roughly seven times the odds of inappropriate elimination, four and a half times the odds of biting, and about three times the odds of back pain. Cats declawed to save the furniture often lose their homes anyway, for exactly those behaviors.
Where it is already banned
More than 30 countries prohibit declawing as a non curative procedure, including the UK and most of Europe under the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals. Every Canadian province has now acted, with Ontario, the last holdout, banning it effective January 2027.
In the United States, six states plus Washington DC have banned it: New York in 2019, Maryland in 2022, Virginia in 2024 with exceptions, Massachusetts and Rhode Island in 2025, and California effective January 2026. Three of those bans passed in the last year alone. Everywhere else in the US, declawing is still sold as an add on service.
That is the pattern worth noticing: bans pass when enough people in one place say the quiet thing out loud. With 53 million American households owning cats, the numbers already exist. They are just muted.
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Sign the petition to ban elective declawing everywhereQuick answers
Is declawing just removing the claw?
No. Because the claw grows from tissue inside the last toe bone, declawing surgically amputates that bone on every toe. Veterinary bodies including the AVMA and AAFP describe it as amputation.
Where is declawing illegal?
More than 30 countries, every Canadian province (Ontario effective January 2027), and in the US: New York, Maryland, Virginia with exceptions, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, plus Washington DC and more than a dozen cities.
Does declawing cause long term problems?
A 2017 peer reviewed study found declawed cats had significantly higher odds of back pain, litter box avoidance, biting, and overgrooming than intact cats.
Sources