Advocates Support Senate Bill 1229 to Protect Pets from Declawing and Devocalizing
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49 commentsState Senator Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) introduced Senate Bill 1229, a bill to help protect the pets of people who are potential renters. This bill would prohibit a landlord from advertising or establishing rental policies requiring an animal to be declawed or devocalized.
There is an increasing trend of some landlords conditioning occupancy of rental housing on the declawing of cats and, or the devocalizing of dogs. “There are a number of steps landlords can take to protect their properties from damage by pets. Pressuring pet owners to subject their pets to inhumane and permanently damaging procedures is unnecessary, expensive and just plain wrong,” said Senator Pavley.
SB 1229 would impose a civil penalty of $1,000 per animal for every violation that results in declawing or devocalization.
Eight local governments in California have recently banned the practice of cat declawing (Berkeley, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Culver City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Monica, West Hollywood), recognizing the practice as inhumane.
Declawing is an operation to remove or to prevent the normal function of an animal’s claws or toes. The practice of declawing has been prohibited in other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Malta, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom and Israel.
Alternatives to declawing or debarking for landlords may include: language in contracts making tenants liable for pet-related damage; require that tenants supply their cats with scratch posts, require an additional refundable security deposit or “pet deposit;” provide scratching posts to tenants with cats, select fabrics that are less likely to appeal to cats for furnished apartments.
Mary Cummins President of Animal Advocates in Los Angeles said “Declawing and devocalizing pets is unnecessary and inhumane. Cats can be easily trained to use a scratching post. Dogs can be trained not to bark. Declawed cats are more likely to stop using their litter box or may become biters. Devocalized dogs will learn to make a new sound which can be worse than barking. These new undesired behaviors sometimes cause the pet owners to dump the pet at the shelter only to be euthanized. Animal Advocates would like to thank Senator Pavley, The Paw Project and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association for introducing this bill.”
out lawed in Massachusetts last year !
awesome!!!…i wish tail docking and ear clipping were on there too..but this is a great step forward!
Didn’t even know you could devocalize a pet. Wow.
Should include chaining and not providing life sustaining nutrition and water.
I support this bill!
Declawing is ok, if your cats never, ever go outside. But devocalizing now that is just inhumane people.
We were able to get one of our Min Pins before they cut her ears, but the other two already had it done and their tails also. It’s terrible to do that to puppies. The ‘docking’ is cruel also.
Annette, in some puppy mills the owners do this. By the way 95% of puppies in pet stores come from places like this:
http://www.examiner.com/dog-rescue-in-erie/mill-dog-s-vocal-cords-cut-to-keep-her-quiet
I got kicked off a page for telling a woman she was abusing her dog by having it devocalized!
I’m all for this, but won’t it make it just that much harder for families with loving pets to find a rental property now?
both are just rotten…
regarding “devocalization”. If it’s done correctly the dog still has a voice, although muted. It takes about 15 minutes (shorter than a dental) and the dog is usually home the same day, bright and bushy tailed. They are happy, the owner is happy, the neighbors are happy.
If the alternative to this is giving the pet up, euthanizing the pet, having the pet seized by animal control for being a nuisance, or using a shock collar, then I’m all for it.
how about doing stuff like that to those people. To make those people less harmful to others they should be “dehanded” and “defeeted” how about that??
It’s nice to see someone taking a stand in favor of animals. Declawing and devocalizing are cruel and unnecessary.
oh, and by “correctly” I mean by a licensed vet under anesthesia.
I have never heard of a landlord asking for devocalization of dogs. if I did I surely would not rent from them. It is cruel and terrible to do this to a dog and declawing a cat puts their life in danger if they ever accidently get out of are abandoned.
Sorry can’t agree. If a debark or declaw will save an animal from a shelter death… It should be allowed. No one seems to have a problem ripping out their gonads at a very tender age though.
ONLY a $1,000 fine? Should be MUCH steeper & a little probation/jail time/community service thrown in
Make it not legal in Ohio
Don’t let it stop you Elena!! People need to understand how unnecessary and cruel this is.
A dogs tail is like taking away the rudder on a boat. It stabilizes the dog when it walks . I remember seeing a cocker spaniel still with his tail , I asked the owner what breed it was, and was quite shocked when I was told that it was a cocker spaniel. I told the owner, good for you for letting your dog keep his tail.
StaceyLea, all of those procedures are for cosmetic purposes only. They do not benefit the animal at all. I have two beautiful pitbulls who have long, waggy tails and floppy ears; and four cats, who have all of their claws. I would never think of altering my companion. And, by the way, not sure where you get your info, but declawing is an incredibly painful procedure for cats (if you doubt it, why not let someone rip your fingernails out?)
years ago, I read that Wyonna Judd had her tiny dog devocalized. Too cruel to imagine.
Senator Pavley’s site wouldn’t send my Thank You because I’m not on her district.
Jan unlike mute humans dogs don’t do facebook and texts do you know how silly you sound
People will do what they want, but it should not be someone else’s decision to impose on to you. This sounds like it only affects the landlords that make it part of a rental agreement. I don’t know why a landlord would make you declaw your cat. Maybe the landlord needs to remove all carpenting from the units and make it the renter’s buy rugs.
it should also include ear cropping and tail docking. My Vet won’t even do these surgeries.
A de-clawed cat, I think, is acceptable. Especially if there’s little children in the household. But leave dogs the hell alone.
But we still encourage ripping their ba**s off!
My vet once asked if I would like to have our cats de-clawed… The look I gave her would have been the same look if she had asked to check my prostate
Declawing is cruel.
“To say that declawing cats is painful is the understatement of the century. You’ve, no doubt, seen James Bond movies or similar shows where people are tortured, even to the point of having their finger(s) chopped off. Do you cringe just thinking about it?
Well, that’s exactly what happens when a cat is declawed.”
http://www.askthecatdoctor.com/declawingcats.html
I completely agree with this. I had my first cat declawed and I feel guilty for it everyday.
@ Gina, I see your point and it is valid but if a landlord ordered me to do that after I was already living in the place I’d tell them to shove it and would see them on court. If it was a requirement to move in to the place then I would not rent their.
@ Barbara Dreyfus Trebby…glad ur on board for no tail docking but make sure you do some research on declawing cats. I was dumbfounded that you think its okay but de-voc is not. HELLO!!!! Read link above that Lynne Parker has provided please. LOVE what u said about tails but HATE what you say about declawing. RESEARCH please.
@sean Mattison do u hate cats too???!!!
My dog’s bark was her signiture trademark. Devocalization sounds just aweful.
im sorry but im againts that bill for Declawing. Sorry if you have an family cat that never leave the house and havd kids around its safer to declaw. But devocalize its just retarded to do it.
I didn’t see anybody mention that dogs depend on their tails for communication purposes too. And ear flaps protect their ears…they were born with tails, ears, claws, teeth and vocal cords for a reason!!!
I’ve heard of people who have had their dogs teeth pulled b/c they couldn’t manage their behavior and didn’t want to bother with being responsible. WTH?!
Targeting the wrong people. Just outlaw the procedure outright, and fine the hell out of the ones that do it. If these procedures are currently legal (for some reason I can’t fathom) then it why bother hammering people who recommend it? Seems like a “wag the dog” situation to me, so to speak.
“…if you have an family cat that never leave the house and havd kids around its safer to declaw.”
No, it’s actually safer to teach your kids how to interact with a cat. With a dog too, for that matter. I believe most injuries to children from a dog or cat are either because there was no adult supervising or the child was not taught to read the signals that animals give as warnings.
So, you can still chop off tails and ears, but to debark a dog painlessly to avoid the dog being continuously punished or beaten (I do sheltie rescue, believe me, it happens), that is cruiel???
It should be more and removal of the pet from the home!!!!!
Its a start but its not enough!
There are some people I’d love to de-vocalize – especially some politicians and wanna be politicians (sarah palin)!
If you love shelties and cats, you will understand why this is a very bad idea. My vet defends declawing and debarking, so do I. For a sheltie to leave its family because it is too noisy is like giving it a death sentence, and it happens far too often. There are far worse things in this world when it comes to animal care. Focus on factory farms or puppy mills please.
Declawing and devocalizing is animal abuse and must be stopped.
Wow, really??? Insane…
This is not acceptable! Thank you Senator Pacely.
Good, I hope this passes. As far as I know, there is no medical reason to devocalize an animal. It doesn’t even seem to work. Go look up “Debarked dog bark” or “devocalized dog bark” on YouTube. It sounds SO MUCH WORSE compared to a normal bark.
As far as declawing, I don’t agree with having it done just to deter scratching. Admittedly, my one cat is front declawed, but she had nine and ten toes, respectively, on her front feet and a few of the claws would just grow into her other toes or feet, no matter how we trimmed them. She could barely walk to the litter box or the food dish without hopping or limping. Now, she seems so much happier and walks around pain-free, but if it weren’t for that reason, she’d have all her claws like our other former stray (who we found loves those sample carpet squares that you can get when you’re recarpeting your home or office. Just tape or glue them to some cheap shelving, or wherever, cover in catnip, and let them have fun)