Story published in January 2023.

UPDATE June 2024.

In 2021 the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) hired a new Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jessica Vogelsang.

She was paid a salary of $204,859 in 2022.

AAHA’s Chief Medical Officer in 2021, Dr Heather Loesner, was paid $121,575 in 2021.

We were hoping that Dr Vogelsang would be able to do the right thing and ban declawing in AAHA animal hospitals but that hasn’t happened.

Dr Vogelsang has been writing for many years about how declawing should end.

Is she afraid of trying to inspire the CEO of AAHA, Garth Jordan, to ban declawing in AAHA Accredited Animal Hospitals because she wants to keep her job or did Mr Jordan tell her that AAHA will not ban declawing? We’ve tried to contact Dr Vogelsang many times but never received a response.

Did Garth Jordan give up some of his salary to pay Dr Vogelsang a lot more money than AAHA’s Chief Medical Officer in 2021?

Please politely ask her if she is trying to ban declawing in AAHA hospitals. Emails – jessica.vogelsang@aaha.org and aaha@aaha.org

Here’s a story she wrote in 2017 about declawing. https://pawcurious.com/2017/09/this-is-how-i-feel-about-declaws-now-with-minimal-exclamation-points/

January 2023

AAHA says that they are strongly opposed to declawing, that veterinarians should tell their clients that it is a procedure that is no longer supported or reasonable, yet they allow it in their AAHA Accredited Animal Hospitals. Many of them perform this inhumane amputation on a regular basis, they advertise declawing, put out declawing coupons, and lie about it and say that the cats are ok long term after they are declawed.

We are optimistic that Dr Vogelsang will be the progressive, ethical, and humane veterinary leader at AAHA who sees the value in doing the right thing, being on the right side of this issue and history, and will inspire AAHA to put the welfare of all animals first and ban declawing in their AAHA accredited animal hospitals.

After all in 2020, Dr Kelly St. Denis became the President of AAFP and inspired them to finally do the right thing and ban declawing in their Cat Friendly Practices. https://citythekitty.org/http-bit-ly-iskellystdenispowerfulenoughtomakecatfriendlytrulycatfriendly/

Here’s our story about AAHA and declawing. AAHA puts profits over the welfare of cats

Dr Vogelsang said this in 2016 in a story. “Tail crops, ear docks, declaws, and debarking for any reason other than the health of the pet should go the way of the dodo.” https://www.petmd.com/blogs/thedailyvet/jvogelsang/2016/april/changing-world-one-seed-time-33957

She said this in 2017. “The Three Prongs of Change: Vets, Owners, and Leadership. In addition to more individual vets declining to do the procedure, we need to move the dial on demand. Public opinion is changing. Yay! The tide has turned significantly since I have graduated, and I’m very grateful for that. Somehow the good people in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and good chunk of Europe manage without the procedure, so I bet we can too.

And just as importantly, we need veterinary leadership to make recommendations based on current information and best practices. Research is ongoing, and we need to change how we work based on what science tells us today” and “The AAFP is in this vet’s opinion the best source of best practices for feline medicine, not just on this but on many topics.” Dr Jessica Vogelsang’s opinion about declawing

She said this in a 2022 story on AAHA’s website. “”The patient is the center of the universe, at least when it comes to their healthcare.” https://www.aaha.org/publications/newstat/articles/2022-12/2023-the-year-of-the-team/

In 2016 she wrote this story on Dr Andy Roark’s website. https://drandyroark.com/proudly-admit-wrong/

By the way, if anyone knows if Andy has finally publicly said he is against declawing, please sent us a note. Here’s something you might like to read about Andy and declawing. https://citythekitty.org/how-dr-andy-roark-played-the-victim-instead-of-helping-the-welfare-of-cats/

AAHA’s 2021 President, Dr Pam Nicols is against declawing but she wasn’t able to ban declawing in AAHA hospitals, in fact AAHA told her to stop having a respectful conversation about declawing with City the Kitty’s President.

Hopefully their CEO Garth Jordan and AAHA won’t do the same to Dr Vogelsang when it comes to this inhumane, cruel, and very unnecessary amputation procedure.

Please send a polite note to AAHA and their CEO Garth Jordan and ask them to let Dr Vogelsang do what’s right and ban declawing in AAHA hospitals. Emails- aaha@aaha.org and garth.jordan@aaha.org

Our petition is almost at 50,000 supporters so please sign it if you haven’t.

Once it hits that level of supporters, petitions usually go viral. https://www.change.org/p/aaha-stop-putting-profits-over-the-welfare-of-cats-and-ban-declawing-in-your-hospitals

Declawing contributes to moral stress in the veterinary profession. https://citythekitty.org/is-the-angst-of-declawing-contributing-to-veterinarian-suicide/

Declawing is animal cruelty. Know the facts. https://citythekitty.org/declawing-facts-vs-myths-humane-options/