Protect the paws: RI Senate votes to ban the declawing of cats. Here's what to know.
PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island lawmakers took a pause from their regular programming this week to deal with paws.
Literally.
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 28 to 4 to ban the declawing of cats. On Wednesday, the House on a 67 to 2 vote approved a lawyerly bill governing pet insurance and what it may mean if Fido has a pre-existing condition or a hereditary disorder.
And yes, the legislators are just back from spring break and voting on non-controversial bills. They have not yet reached the point in every legislative session where deals are made on more contentious bills, the horse trading begins and legislative budget-writers wrap their brains around how much money is actually available to deal with a mountain of needs.
$1,000 fine for declawing a cat
The cat bill bans the surgical removal of a cat's claws, or the procedure known as a "tendonectomy" in which the tendons to a cat's limbs, paws, or toes are cut or modified to impair their "normal functioning" of the claws.
Once popular among cat owners who might love their pets but not the damage their scratching does to chairs and couches, declawing has long been frowned upon.
The bill the Senate approved – for the second year in a row – would make declawing illegal and impose a $1,000 fine on anyone who performs such a procedure, except for a "therapeutic purpose," such as to remove an infection that compromises the cat's health.
Several animal-rights activists and groups have applauded the bill sponsored by Sen. Melissa Murray, D-Woonsocket, including:
The Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association: "Declawing is a painful, invasive surgery – a series of 10-18 separate amputations of the last bones of a cat's toes." Complications from declawing, like an increased likelihood to bite and avoid the litterbox as some of the primary reasons why cats are brought to shelters, "where many face euthanasia."
Anna-Marie Corvin, as head of the Warwick Animal Shelter, wrote: "The bottom line is if someone wants a cat that doesn't scratch then they shouldn't get a cat since cats all have a need to scratch, just like if they didn't want a dog to bark then they shouldn't get a dog."
Who opposes the law to ban cat declawing?
Perhaps unexpectedly, the only letter of opposition to the bill came from the Rhode Island Veterinary Medical Association on grounds that it "attempts to supersede the authority of the Board of Veterinary Medicine...[creates] regulations redundant to and outside of the parameters of the veterinary practice laws" and gives public officials oversight of veterinarians.
The four nay votes were cast by four of the five Senate Republicans. The fifth was recorded as not voting.
In 2019 the nation's first bill to prohibit convenience declawing statewide was signed into law in New York. Maryland followed. Passage through the House would make Rhode Island the third state, according to the testimony.
Pet-insurance reform bill also on the docket
The push for a pet insurance bill came from the Department of Business Regulation, with backing from the local advocacy group "Defenders of Animals."
The group's director, Dennis Tabella, told legislators "confused consumers ... often struggle to navigate through the patchwork of pet-insurance rules and protections."
An "understandable language" on coverage limits, waiting periods and deductibles is necessary, he said.
Unlike Obamacare for humans, a pet insurer can refuse to cover a pet's pre-existing condition but the legislation, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Solomon, D-Warwick, would require they clearly disclose, in advance, to the humans buying the insurance what it does and does not cover.
A total of 30 entities market pet insurance in Rhode Island, including some that have employed aggressive − and in some cases, misleading − recruitment techniques that merited a dart in a DBR report on the industry.
Pet insurance has not generated a lot of complaints in Rhode Island, but DBR spokesman Patrick Griffin said this is a fast-growing segment of the insurance industry and those complaints that have come in are largely the result of confusion.
"It's consumer friendly and pet friendly bill," Solomon said of his legislation.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI is one step closer to making it illegal to declaw cats
