What Every AAHA Con 2025 Attendee Should Know & Why AAHA’s Idea of Excellence Includes Cat Cruelty

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.

A Legacy of Cruelty: Reimann Family’s Veterinary Company, NVA, Allows Declawing Despite Calling It Inhumane.

In 2019, a spokesman for the billionaire Reimann family—whose ancestors profited under the Nazi regime—said, “The whole truth must be put on the table.”
Here’s a truth still hidden: The Reimanns built part of their immense fortune on human suffering, and today, they allow cat suffering to continue.
Through their firm JAB Holding Co., they own NVA, the largest U.S. network of vet hospitals—over 1,400 clinics—many of which still perform declawing, a cruel amputation procedure their own Medical Board has called “inhumane.”
The cruelty didn’t stop with history. It just changed form.

‘Monumental Moment’ or Hollow Hype? AAHA Fails to Ban Declawing, Trails Behind Industry Leaders

LAKEWOOD, Colo., July 25, 2025 — The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) introduced “groundbreaking new Standards of Accreditation”  calling them a “historic milestone” in elevating veterinary care in their press release. Yet, AAHA’s new standards merely “discourages” nontherapeutic declawing, ear cropping, and devocalization, allowing their accredited hospitals to continue these practices without penalty. AAHA’s Director […]

AAHA’s Declaw Communications Toolkit To Help Their Declawing Hospitals

Remember, declawing is a $900,000 – $1,200,000,000/year business. That’s a lot of clams.

So here’s the hypocrisy in a nutshell.
AAHA has strict guidelines for compliance.
AAHA has a strong anti-declaw position.
Get ready for the big BUT…
But, they openly tell their 3500 members who pay $1070 for membership, that they don’t have to follow the AAHA declaw position. (They aren’t however, ever lax on the dentals.)