Category: How The Veterinary Associations Stopped the Anti-Declawing Legislation

AAHA Veterinarians Fight to Stop The Anti-Declawing Bills. AAHA.org Puts Profits Over The Welfare of Cats

Here are some examples of how the vets with AAHA Accredited Animal Hospital’s fight to stop the anti-declawing bills and ordinances.
Dr Lynn McEwan of Palmdale veterinary hospital, an AAHA accredited animal hospital, submitted this letter of opposition to the California bill to ban declawing in 2018.
In August 2021, another AAHA veterinarian, Dr Peter Pelissier testified to the Sheridan, WY City Council and Mayor about why he opposes the declaw ban amendment to the animal cruelty/abuse ordinance. Here’s his full testimony.  He was not truthful with some of his information. This declaw ban amendment was stopped by a 5-2 vote. One of the Sheridan City Council members told us that he voted no because of Dr Pelissier’s testimony. 

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April 16, 2026

MVMA Used Misleading Testimony to Influence 7 GOP Legislators Who Stopped Minnesota’s Declawing Bill

7 GOP Legislators are Duped by MVMA.org’s Declawing Deception And Kill The MN Anti-Declaw Bill, Ensuring Many Innocent and Healthy Cats in Minnesota Will Be Barbarically Mutilated and Suffer for Life. In 2025, MVMA spokesman Dr Trevor Ames assured lawmakers that “very few veterinary practices offer elective declawing as a service currently.” In 2026, MVMA’s spokesman, Dr Rob Memmem, co-owner of Gehrman Animal Hospital, reinforced that narrative in a March 2026 hearing, telling legislators there had been “a huge increase in the number of our veterinarians no longer performing the procedure over the last 15 or so years,” that “currently about 30%” still offer declawing while “70% are not,” and that the profession had “appropriately regulated itself moving away from this procedure.” He further claimed “a decreasing number of veterinary clinics are offering to perform this procedure entirely.” Our survey found that 61% of vet clinics in MN are still performing declawing.

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April 15, 2026

Unnecessary and Inhumane: Majority of Ohio Vet Clinics Still Perform Declawing Despite Clear Evidence of Harm

Ohio — A statewide investigative declawing survey of 100 randomly selected veterinary clinics reveals a deeply troubling picture of the welfare of cats in Ohio, where this inhumane, mutilating, and cruel amputation procedure remains routine in many communities.
Declawing is the amputation of the last bone of every cat’s toe and it has been condemned by leading veterinary organizations and animal welfare organizations and outlawed in six U.S. states, restricted in dozens of cities, banned in eight of nine Canadian provinces, and prohibited in more than 40 countries. Decades of studies link the procedure to lifelong chronic pain, arthritis, mobility issues, and behavioral problems that often lead to cats being surrendered to shelters or euthanized.
Yet in Ohio, the practice remains widespread.
This survey found that approximately 80% of these clinics still declaw cats, with some openly advertising the procedure online and other even performing four-paw declaws.

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November 14, 2025

The Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association Is Trying To Keep Animal Cruelty (Declawing) Legal.

The Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association wrote in their Sept. 1, 2023 newsletter, “PVMA is involved in working behind the scenes to prevent a declaw ban from moving in the legislature. This is a tricky issue, but it would be bad precedent to have the state government decide what procedures we cannot perform on our clients animals.”
The Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association doesn’t want to regulate their veterinarians even when it comes to this animal cruelty.

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February 10, 2024