Story published on Sept. 10, 2020.
Photo is of Teeger who was declawed, along with his two siblings, at an AAHA hospital after the vets talked the owners OUT of the humane options. All three cats had to have most of their paws amputated due to complications and they all went through unimaginable suffering and pain and their lives were completely ruined. More about this horrific story below.
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) is holding its AAHAcon conference on Sept. 11 at the Chicago Marriott. They claim to set the “gold standard” of veterinary care and will be celebrating their excellence in veterinary medicine but they still allow declawing in their accredited animal hospitals.
More than 4,500 practices representing 50,000 veterinary team members pay thousands of dollars to the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA.org), a company that allows a barbaric, antiquated, and inhumane amputation procedure (declawing) so they can be branded as hospitals that deliver quality medicine, embody the “gold standard” of excellence, and raise the bar for the veterinary profession.
This deceives pet owners into believing accreditation guarantees excellence.
When pet owners learn that AAHA.org allows declawing and many AAHA hospitals declaw cats, trust collapses, and the no-declaw AAHA hospitals that uphold humane care are dragged down by the same AAHA brand.
Excellence cannot be built on cruelty.
In August AAHA created a voluntary standard discouraging declawing and plans to make it mandatory in 1–3 years but only with the approval of its member hospitals, many of them declaw cats.
If the AAHA declawing hospitals genuinely cared about cats’ welfare, they would have stopped this cruel procedure years ago, as the ethical and humane hospitals already have.
AAHA knows declawing is inhumane and wrong, yet it chooses delay, compromise, and appeasement over leadership—putting profits and member appeasement above the health, safety, and well-being of cats.
AAHA’s stance also harms veterinary professionals: the field already has one of the highest suicide rates, and procedures like declawing intensify moral stress. Many AAHA hospital staff witness and assist in these cruel and horrific act of mutilation procedures, seeing healthy cats endure pain and lifelong consequences, despite simple, humane alternatives, leaving them traumatized, morally injured, and disillusioned in a profession they joined to heal, not harm. Many are afraid to speak out against it for fear of losing their jobs.
Meanwhile, AAHA hospitals that don’t declaw and just educate pet owners about humane alternatives are forced to share the same “gold standard” label as those performing, advertising, and lying about this horrific cruelty, undermining their integrity and eroding trust.
AAHA claims excellence, but by allowing declawing, it betrays both cats and the veterinary professionals who care for them.
Here’s what you should know about AAHA before you attend AAHA Con 2025:
(Here’s the full story about AAHA and declawing over the years- https://citythekitty.org/why-does-aaha-org-choose-profits-over-the-welfare-of-innocent-cats/ )
1) AAHA has blatantly lied to advocates for years about why they allow declawing in their AAHA accredited hospitals.
FACTS- AAHA has over 900 standards, many of them mandatory and must be followed if a vet clinic wants to be AAHA Accredited and in 2013 AAHA banned non-anesthesia dental cleaning procedures in their hospitals.
AAHA is ALL about instructing their veterinarians on how to practice medicine if they want to be AAHA accredited.
Here are AAHA’s documented lies when asked about why they still allow declawing.
2) 2016. An advocate reached out to AAHA and asked them why they allow declawing in AAHA accredited animal hospitals they said that the ultimate decision maker is the pet owner.
(AAHA FEELS THAT PET OWNERS SHOULD DICTATE WHAT’S RIGHT OR WRONG IN VETERINARY MEDICINE?)
3) 2020. AAHA emailed supporters and said, “The American Animal Hospital Association is a voluntary and non-regulatory organization that strives to uphold standards of excellence in veterinary medicine. Thus, as a non–regulatory organization AAHA does not instruct veterinarians how to practice medicine.”
4) 2021- AAHA wrote an advocate and said this, “We strive to uphold standards of veterinary excellence, but we do not instruct veterinarians how to practice medicine.”
5) 2024. Advocates asked some questions to the new chat window on AAHA’s website about why they allow declawing and here are the answers we got.
“Our standards are for overall care of an animal and do not mandate specific medical procedures for a clinic” and “We appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the topic of declawing. We recognize that there are diverse opinions on this matter and we want to clarify that AAHA does not have a mandate regarding declawing, we leave this decision to each individual practice.”
(The Chat window option was removed from their website the next day.)
6) In 2025, AAHA announced “historic” new VOLUNTARY standards—but still allow declawing, only discouraging it and said they will make it mandatory in 1-3 years WITH THEIR MEMBER SUPPORT.
Will all their accredited hospitals that declaw cats give their nod of approval? It’s highly unlikely as we have found AAHA hospitals that used to be Cat Friendly Practices and they stopped being a CFP when the Feline VMA banned declawing in them in 2021.
Many of the AAHA Accredited hospitals even advertise their declawing services on their website and some of them even lie about declawing. Here are some of the AAHA hospitals that advertise declawing, This is a 30 year AAHA hospital, https://parksveterinary.com/treatment/surgical-services/ and this long time AAHA hospital, https://www.comoparkanimalhospital.com/surgery , “Surgical laser offers the safest, least painful method of declawing available today. Laser surgery eliminates any painful regrowth of nail tissue because the entire claw and attached, non-weight-bearing bones are surgically removed. Your cat can quickly return to normal activity, usually within one to three weeks following surgery. The laser makes this surgery virtually bloodless and painless.” https://rosshospital.com/feline-declaw-laser-surgery/, “With recent developments in veterinary medicine, cats declawed at Windmill Animal Hospital experience minimal pain peri- or post-operatively. All declaws at Windmill Animal Hospital are performed via laser surgery–thereby reducing post-op pain, swelling & bruising by 80%. In addition, combining long-acting local anesthetics with morphine-based systemic analgesics, assures that all Windmill Animal Hospital declaws are performed with maximum patient comfort and compassion. “ https://www.windmillvet.com/faq/ , https://heartlandanimalhospitalpc.com/Surgery.php , “Laser surgery is a great way to reduce pain and swelling. We are pleased to offer this less invasive method for procedures such as declaws” https://www.laketownanimalhospital.com/surgery, “We are proud to offer safe and affordable spays, neuters, and declaws in a warm, friendly and comfortable environment…” http://www.wyllowpethospital.com/Services.html , “Routine surgeries include spaying, neutering, growth removals, and declaw procedures. “ https://naplescoastalvet.com/our-services/surgical-operations/ , “Our laser surgeries include: Declaws “ https://www.ahdcvets.com/services/surgery/ , and there are many more.
7) AAHA hand-picked 4 declawing hospitals as 2025 “Practice of the Year” finalists, praising them as practicing “gold standard” care and three of them declaw cats according to employees who work there. Since our story was published, one of them, Stonebrook Family Pet Clinic, said they stopped declawing and they made this blog post that says, “Why we no longer offer elective declawing.” Another one, Blue Springs Animal Hospital took down all their declawing info and advertisement from their website. Will AAHA chose a declawing hospital as their 2025 practice of they year like they’ve done in their past contests? Here’s the story. https://citythekitty.org/the-american-animal-hospital-associations-aaha-blood-money-declawed-cats-are-the-victims-their-abusers-are-the-winners/
8) After 3 cats were declawed at an AAHA hospital in 2015 and they all had horrific complications and had to have most of their paws amputated, AAHA did nothing about this and the veterinary medical board let the vets at this AAHA hospital off the hook for the mutilation and unimaginable suffering they caused to these 3 cats.
What DID AAHA do after those 3 cats were tortured and maimed at one of their accredited hospitals?
They came out with a Declaw Communications Toolkit in 2016 to HELP their AAHA Accredited declawing hospitals.
9) 2020. AAHA sicced their lawyers on us and forced us to take down some of their declawing info and logo from our stories after we published the story about how their 2020 Animal Hospital of the Year declaws lots of cats. We are shining light on the FACTS on how AAHA is complicit to this animal cruelty by allowing declawing in their accredited animal hospitals even though they say they are strongly opposed to it. Here’s our press release about AAHA’s intimidation.
10) Dr Andy Roark is AAHA’s Keynote Speaker in their 2025 AAHA Con.
In 2015, City the Kitty respectfully reached out to Dr Andy Roark and Dr. Marty Becker, asking both if they would help educate people about declawing so that this inhumane amputation procedure would end. We also question Dr Roark on why many employees at his practice said that he declaws cats when he said that he doesn’t perform declaws anymore.
Dr Marty Becker stepped up and wrote “The Tragedy of Post-Declaw Pain Syndrome,” a powerful story that educated the public and likely saved countless cats.
Dr Andy Roark, instead, published a false “cyberbullying” story, twisting polite, respectful emails into victimhood while saying, “I am opposed to declawing but have not made my views on this issue public for a variety of reasons. One is that I believe I can do more good in the veterinary community when my feelings are unknown as it helps me generate productive discussions without having people get defensive and shut down. I would like to move veterinary medicine forward as a whole, and this is the best way for me to try to accomplish that” and “There is a decent chance that I will draw public attention to this issue, but it will be when I am researched, inspired, and ready to try to make change. .. I hope you are correct and someday declawing will be illegal.”
Nearly 10 years later, from what we can find, he still hasn’t mentioned one word about declawing in any public forum. Is he still not ready to help make change to save cats from this barbaric cruelty by taking a couple minutes to speak out against it, or does he just not care that thousands of cats are being mutilated, tortured, and harmed for life from this barbaric amputation procedure?
Here’s our story. https://citythekitty.org/how-dr-andy-roark-played-the-victim-instead-of-helping-the-welfare-of-cats/
11) Most major veterinary companies and organizations have banned declawing. AAHA is the last big holdout.
Bottom line. AAHA talks about excellence in veterinary medicine but allows this barbaric animal cruelty in their hospitals because they are afraid to lose all the membership dues from their declawing hospitals.
Please sign & share our petition: https://www.change.org/AAHAallowsDeclawing
Please email AAHA and ask them to stop allowing declawing in their animal hospitals THIS YEAR and not in 1-3 years! Standards@aaha.org
Always take the high road, be polite, and educate.