The AVMA House of Delegates (HOD) met January 11 of this year to discuss several important policy subjects. Most notably, the HOD discussed the current policy on declawing of cats and proposed changes. Declawing of cats has become less popular and more controversial in the veterinary world. Fewer veterinarians are volunteering to perform the procedure and several municipalities have voted to ban the procedure. In 2019, New York became the first state to ban elective declawing of cats. Prior to that, West Hollywood, California became the first city to ban elective declawing of cats in 2003, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis and Denver. Banfield Pet Hospital adopted a policy that its veterinarians would not perform elective declawing procedures. This policy will extend to all Mars-owned hospitals in 2020 including Blue Pearl and VCA.
The pervious AVMA policy discouraged declawing of cats and emphasized education of the client over cat behavior, procedure risks and management. The revised policy simplified the language of the 2014 policy. The revised policy does not advise the practice of routine declawing of cats, but respects the right of the veterinarian to use his or her own judgement on the necessity of the procedure. The policy still advocates for education of the client on cat behavior and alternatives to declawing. The policy also requires multi-modal pain management if surgery is performed.
The new declaw policy can be found at avma.org/policies/declawing-domestic-cats. The revised policy reads as follows: “The AVMA discourages the declawing (onychectomy) of cats as an elective procedure and supports non-surgical alternatives to the procedure. The AVMA respects the veterinarian’s right to use professional judgment when deciding how to best protect their individual patients’ health and welfare. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the veterinarian to counsel the owner about the natural scratching behavior of cats, the alternatives to surgery, as well as the details of the procedure itself and subsequent potential complications. Onychectomy is a surgical amputation and if performed, multi-modal perioperative pain management must be utilized.”
The AVMA has a resource page for cat owners at avma.org/declaw. This page also provides assistance with the decision-making process when a client is seeking onychectomy.
