Register & Log-In
Blogroll
- American Made Products Buy American
- Bleeding Earth Environment and actions you can take.
- made in the U.S.A. Products made in the United States
- Political Views from a Small Town Politics from the Left Side
- WordPress Plugins
- WordPress Plugins
Friends
- ASPCA Poison Control Center Poison Control Center 888-426-4435
- ASPCA Puppy Facts Info on Pet Stores & Breeders
- Free Stuff for Web Sites Free clipart, downloads and suggestions for webmasters
- Hoosier Kitties Extensive List of Cat Info,Rescues and Shelters
- House Rabbit Society Rabbit Care Guide House Rabbit Society Rabbit Care, Information and Adoption services.
- Make Mine Chocolate Information about Domestic Rabbits
- Only Natural Pet Store All Natural pet food and supplies.
- Pet Guardian Angels of America Extensive lists by state of rescues for all types of animals
- Pet Poison Helpline 24 hour help for pet poisoning 1-800-213-6680
- Political Views from a Small Town Politics from the Left Side
- sxc.hu Images Provided By
Resources
Tag Archives: declawing
Thank You West Hollywood
As I have written before, it gets depressing trying to make people see the light about animals. I realize that cats, dogs, birds and other animals are sentient beings, so it gets frustrating when it seems so many others don’t see this. The cruelty of the puppy mills seems to go on and on, no matter how many we rescue. Then something really, really good happens and that puts the wind back in my sails, so myself and others keep pushing to save every animal possible.
This time the good thing comes from West Hollywood, California. On February 1,2010 the West Hollywood City Council voted unanimously to ban the sale of cats and dogs at pet stores. Only those that re-home pets and animals will still be allowed to do business. This comes after banning the cruelty of declawing cats earlier this year.
Without commercial pet stores selling their product, puppy mills and commercial cat breeding facilities will have no reason to stay in business in West Hollywood. People who raise animals in these types of places will not have a commercial outlet for their puppies and kittens. They will have to clean up their businesses and become legitimate breeders or go out of business altogether.
Of course, this also means that many more rescue and shelter animals will find homes. In my view, its a win- win situation and the perfect way to put these high volume, cruel animal traffickers out of business.
Other cities have done what West Hollywood is now doing. But we need to make sure that the numbers of areas that ban this type of sale keeps growing. I find myself inspired to continue making calls and writing letters to municipalities that do not yet ban pet shop animal sales. I’m sure many others do, too.
It is nice to get good news and I look forward to getting more of it on this front. Until then, please call your city and state offices to tell them they should ban the commercial pet shop sale of animals. Someday, we will have put all the puppy mills and commercial catteries out of business for good.
From the article at Care 2:
“West Hollywood’s City Council has shown great leadership, wise judgment and compassion,” in taking that action and, “by considering an ordinance banning the sale of cats and dogs in our city’s pet stores. It will save countless shelter animals’ lives locally and will send a strong message to abusive commercial breeders all over the nation.”
Read the rest about this subject here.
Great Year for Animal Law
2009 has seen some great legislation passed that will benefit animals of all kinds. We have written here about cities banning declawing of cats, states licensing dog breeders to help prevent puppy mills and Senators standing up for vets with service dogs. We have introduced you to organizations and people that save animals and pets every day.
On the environmental front, it does seem as though we are making progress. It sure does help to have sympathetic people in charge and the differences are beginning to appear. I really think the next three or four years are going to be banner ones for the environment. People are becoming more and more aware, and when that happens the politicians and judges have to start to pay attention or they won’t keep their jobs.
There is a thing called a tipping point and to me, it just feels like we have reached it where animals are concerned. From pets to wildlife and from global warning to endangered plants and animals, progress is being made. It is slow and it is just baby steps. It is really hard to be patient, but, now is not the time to let up. It is the time to push even harder. We must all stand up and say enough is enough and we won’t put up with any more!
I got an email recently from our friends at the ASPCA about the year that is just about over and the progress that has been made. Of course this doesn’t cover environmental progress but the ASPCA seems really psyched about progress for domestic and farm animals.
From the ASPCA Bulletin:
Although it has been a somewhat tough year for animal-friendly legislation, hard work by legislators, the ASPCA and animal advocates like you brought several vital state-level bills over the finish line! During this season of reflection and review, the ASPCA wants you to know that every email you sent, every phone call you made, and every dollar you contributed toward the cause of humane legislation made a difference. As 2009 winds down, let’s take a moment to celebrate some of our achievements around the country. We truly could not have done it without you!
Read about some of the laws here: http://www.aspca.org/news/national/12-04-09.html
I want to say thank you to all of the readers of fluffyfeet who have signed petitions, written letters and made phone calls. And that thank you comes from the bottom of my heart.
Okay, the mushy stuff is out of the way so I will tell you now, don’t think I will let up on you until the job is finished! There will be many more petitions, letters and phone calls to make. So get ready for 2010 and be ready to work hard for all our animal friends.
Posted in Anti-Cruelty Campaigns Tagged animals, Cats, declawing, environment, pet, Puppies Leave a comment
Cities Ban Declawing
Cities in California are banning declawing. This is great news for all cat lovers everywhere because declawing is an inhumane and cruel process of amputating cats toes. Let us all work toward making this cruel practice rare in the United States. It is already considered animal cruelty in many other countries and it should be the same here.
From Veterinary News:
California — Three more California cities officially have banned declawing, bringing the grand total to six cities making some kind of move against the practice.Berkeley, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles city councils all cast final votes to ban declawing Nov. 17, joining San Francisco and Santa Monica, which passed similar bans earlier in November. Malibu condemned the practice in a resolution, but did not legally ban the practice.Burbank City Council also heard arguments for a declaw ban at its Nov. 17 meeting and could have legislation on its agenda by its Nov. 24 meeting. Culver City and Humboldt, Marin and Sonoma counties also have expressed interest in seeking declawing bans, according to The Paw Project, an advocacy group that is pushing to get the bans into effect before a new state law takes effect that will prevent cities from meddling with state-regulated practices.
West Hollywood was the first California city to pass a declaw ban in 2003, spurring a fight between the city and the state veterinary medical association over whether cities could interfere with state-licensed professions. A new state law was signed in July, saying cities can’t pass laws that interfere with veterinary medicine practices allowed by the state, but the new law doesn’t affect laws passed before Jan. 1, 2010.
Cruelty to animals is much too frequent. We, as a nation, should not condone cruelty disguised as accepted surgery.
Declawing a Cat
Declawing a cat is not just the removal of its nails. It is amputation, pure and simple. The cat’s claw is not a fingernail. It is part of the distal phalanx or last bone of the cat’s toe. The only way to be sure the cat’s claws are completely removed and prevent regrowth of vestigial claws or abscesses is to amputate the entire distal phalanx up to the joint. This amputation includes bone, ligaments and tendons. It is equivalent to amputating the tips of all ten of your fingers at the last joint above the nail.
The surgery is called Onychectomy. This is not just a simple surgery. It is ten amputations. It can be done by guillotine style cutters, scalpel or laser.
Declawing is uncommon outside of the United States. It is, in fact, considered animal cruelty in some other countries and is illegal in many European countries. In England it is termed inhumane and unnecessary mutilation.
When the pet owner has certain medical conditions such as AIDS, diabetes, cancer patients under going chemotherapy and organ transplant patients taking anti-rejection medications the choice may come down to declawing the cat or separating the cat from the owner. In these cases it may be kinder to declaw the cat than break the human-animal bond and cause further trauma to both cat and owner.
If you are considering declawing your cat to prevent messing up a piece of furniture then there are other ways to modify claw sharpening behaviour. There are even designer scratching posts available that will fit in with your decor and will not embarrass your sofa, chair or love seat by being too lowbrow for the neighborhood.
I will not make the blanket judgement that all declawing is cruel. Each situation is different. I will say that I have never had one of my cats declawed. I did, however adopt a big Orange Marmalade cat that was already five years old and he had been declawed. That cat lived to be almost twenty-five years old. Until the day he died he suffered from periodic infections in one toe that would require a Vet’s attention. We learned to watch for little bloody spots where he had walked and when we saw them we knew it was time for another Vet visit.
Before you rush of to have your cats claws removed, do a little reading and find out what you are really doing to the animal. You can read an excellent description of the whole process including diagrams at http://www.maxshouse.com/facts_about_declawing.htm and another at http://www.petstation.com/declaw.html.
