Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday, Oct. 10 banning the declawing of cats in California unless medically necessary.
He also signed a number of bills aimed at halting the puppy and pet mill trades from selling pets, especially sick ones, for profit in the state.
The declawing law, Assembly Bill 867, carried bipartisan support, with legislators approving it last month.
Spearheaded by Assemblymember Alex Lee, D-Milpitas, the bill bans the practice of declawing cats unless a veterinarian deems it medically necessary to protect the animal’s health. Declawing is already prohibited in multiple California cities, according to Lee’s office, including Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, and the bill expands the ban statewide.
“Mutilating healthy cats for human convenience is cruel and inhumane,” Lee said in September. “Cat declawing is a permanent disfiguring surgery that’s equivalent to removing a person’s fingers at the top knuckle, and this barbaric procedure causes lifelong pain.”
The effort to ban cat declawing statewide goes back to 2018 with numerous bills drafted and killed. Most bills died due to resistance from the California Veterinary Medical Association, which spent at least $1 million on lobbying in that time.
Lee last spring expressed his dismay at the procedure when he described it to lawmakers on the Assembly Business and Professions Committee.
“Cat declawing is a serious surgery, with a cat’s final toe joint being removed, or its tendons being severed,” said Lee, who owns cats Udon and Soba. “I believe that when it is performed for any reason other than the health of the cat, then I believe it is cruel and inhumane.”
Christina DiCaro, a lobbyist for the California Veterinary Medical Association, told CalMatters in April that many of the association’s members have already stopped declawing.
“They note that they have not done a declaw procedure in many, many years,” she told the committee. “And if they did, it was because their human client owner was on a blood thinner and could not risk being scratched by their cat.”
She said the association opposed the bill because vets don’t want lawmakers dictating their practices.
Puppy, pet mill laws
The governor also signed three bills aimed at halting the puppy and pet mill industries.
Assembly Bill 506, sponsored by Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura), requires pet sellers to disclose the pet’s origin and health information.
In California, it’s already illegal to sell pets from puppy mills inside or outside the state. But puppy mill operators got around that law, Assembly Bill 485, by changing the animal’s origin once it arrived in California.
The new law also voids contracts that include non-refundable deposits, with the governor’s office saying these clauses often result in a “bait-and-switch by committing hopeful pet parents to unhealthy pets – and feeds the puppy mill industry.”
AB 519 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) bans third-party pet brokers, in particular online pet brokers, from selling cats, puppies and rabbits bred by others for profit in California.
Senate Bill 312 by state Sen. Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana) requires dog importers to submit health certificates electronically to the California Department of Food and Agriculture within 10 days of shipment, and requires CDFA to provide those certificates upon request.
CalMatters contributed to this report.