West Hollywood declaw ban prompts bill banning local interference in veterinary medicine

July 8, 9:35 PMPet Health ExaminerLorie Huston

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New bill prohibits local laws from interfering with the practice of veterinary medicine.

On July 2, 2009, California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill dealing with the practice of veterinary medicine. The new law prohibits local governments, on either a city or county level, from passing laws which ban veterinarians from performing medical duties which are not prohibited under California's state licensing standards.

A similar bill, Assembly Bill 2427, had been proposed in California's Assembly last year, had passed in the legislature, but was never signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger.

New bill prompted by bill prohibiting declawing of cats in West Hollywood

The new bill, Senate bill 762, was authored by Senator Sam Aanestad and sponsored by the California Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). The new bill was prompted by a previous bill passed in 2003 in West Hollywood, CA which banned veterinarians from performing declaw procedures on cats.

Following passage of the original declaw ban bill, the California Veterinary Medical Association sued the city of West Hollywood and won the suite, overthrowing the decision to ban feline declaws. However, that decision was later overturned in an appellate court and the feline declaw ban was reinstated as law.

Fear that declaw ban set broad precedent

Proponents of the new bill, which prohibits local governments from interfering with the practice of veterinary medicine, fear that West Hollywood's local ban on the declawing of cats could set a much broader precedent. They fear that this precedent may encourage local city or county governments to ban other procedures which members of local government do not support, including not only the declawing of cats but also human procedures such as cosmetic surgeries (breast implants, face lifts, "tummy tucks", and other cosmetic procedures) and even abortion.

According to the California Veterinary Medical Association, "Our problem is not about declawing, it's about local government overriding state jurisdiction on the practice of medicine. We don't think a local government should be regulating a state-controlled practice of medicine."

New bill does not affect West Hollywood ban on declawing cats

The new bill affects only laws passed after January 1, 2010, which means that the West Hollywood, California law banning the declawing of cats will remain intact.