A ban on declawing passed a key committee vote in Florida this week, while Black Sabbath frontman and reality TV star Ozzy Osbourne has become the new face of a PETA campaign against the harmful practice.
Florida aims to become the second US state to ban the elective and harmful procedure after our home state, New York, passed the country’s first statewide ban on declawing in 2019.
The Florida bill, which was introduced in August, was approved by the state senate’s agricultural committee by a 4-1 vote on Tuesday. It’s expected to pass two more committee votes before it goes to a final vote on the senate floor.
The ban would levy relatively stiff penalties for owners and veterinarians who ignore the law. The former would face fines of $1,000 per cat, while veterinarians would be fined $5,000 per cat, as well as discipline from the state’s Board of Veterinary Medicine.
Meanwhile, Osbourne and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have teamed up for a public announcement campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the damage declawing does to cats.
The ads feature a striking image of Osbourne holding up both hands, with his fingers severed at the first knuckle to illustrate what’s done to cats during the procedure. It’s bloody, like Osbourne’s long-time stage antics, and controversial, like many PETA campaigns.
“Amputating a cat’s toes is twisted and wrong,” Osbourne said, per PETA. “If your couch is more important to you than your cat’s health and happiness, you don’t deserve to have an animal! Get cats a scratching post—don’t mutilate them for life.”
Pain In The Bud 
I can’t explain how it makes me feel that we have to ban something that is so obviously barbaric and unnecessary. A vet who would consider declawing a healthy cat shouldn’t be allowed to practice.
I have 114 cat toes (5 normal count cats,1 polydactyl) roaming my house and enriching my world. By providing scratching solutions that work for them, I also have an intact leather couch, and a non-fuzzed microfibre love seat.
BUT even on the off-chance that I someday have an unbreakable furniture scratcher, the herd will always have all their claws!
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Agreed. It boggles the mind how some people place the value of a replaceable, inanimate object like a couch over the life, welfare and happiness of a sentient being. We can’t have a nationwide ban soon enough.
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I love that Ozzy has gotten involved. I can’t believe declawing was ever considered normal.
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Thankfully there’s strong momentum toward bans in several states now, and hopefully it will have a domino effect. We’re one of the last first-world countries to allow it, which isn’t very flattering for us.
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I agree that declawing cats is barbaric, and causes more problems than it solves. My own experience has been that as long as my cats have something suitable to scratch on (scratching post, cat trees, etc.), they leave the furniture alone.
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Agreed. If people don’t want to buy scratchers and cat furniture — or they think it ruins their decor — they shouldn’t have a cat. Simple as that. Scratching is a perfectly normal thing for a cat.
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Declawing is legal animal cruelty.
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I agree. Thankfully even more states are considering bans now.
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Holy cow – I had absolutely NO idea that Ozzy had gone vegan. Good for him….and good for him for trying to get rid of something so barbaric.
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It’s good to see more people caring about animals.
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Marvelous that they matter now. But there is still a great demand for animal abuse.
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