Bill banning cat declawing rejected in New Hampshire House
Lawmakers rejected the cat declawing bill on a 191-177 vote. (Photo by Dana Wormald/New Hampshire Bulletin)
The House on Thursday shot down a bill that would have prohibited removing the claws from cats except when medically necessary.
House Bill 201 would have banned the practice 'for cosmetic or aesthetic reasons or for reasons of convenience in keeping or handling the cat.' The bill has failed to pass the Legislature several times in recent years. This year, lawmakers rejected it on a 191-177 vote.
The bill would've fined violators $500 for a first violation, $1,000 for a second violation, and $2,500 for subsequent violations.
Rep. Nicholas Germana, a Keene Democrat and one of the bill's sponsors, noted that the House passed the measure about two years ago with bipartisan support.
'Some of my friends who are opposed to this bill talk about it as if it were an intervention into a sacred doctor-patient relationship,' Germana said on the House floor. 'Let's be clear about something: This is not a doctor-patient relationship. This is a relationship between a veterinarian, and the patient in this case is a cat, and if we gave cats a choice I'm pretty sure that they would in fact support this legislation.'
He said the bill left open the opportunity for legitimate medical interventions. Germana said veterinary professionals and members of the public testified to the House Environment and Agriculture Committee that declawing was 'simply an inhumane procedure.' The committee split on the bill, recommending on a 9-7 vote that it not pass.
Those who testified against declawing in the committee hearing argued that even one unnecessary declawing was too many, and some shared that they had witnessed intense, long-lasting pain from cats who had undergone the procedure.
Rep. Judy Aron, a South Acworth Republican and chair of the committee, said the bill was 'a solution in the search of a problem.'
The majority of the committee voted to reject the bill, 'because there is no real need to ban this procedure or codify harsh penalties to veterinarians,' Aron said. 'We do not have any statistics that demonstrate that New Hampshire has a problem with our veterinarians performing cat declawing procedures for nonmedical reasons.'
She also argued the fines would be 'really unenforceable,' because it would be difficult to prove that the veterinarian did not have a valid medical reason to perform the declawing. She also said veterinarians testified that the vast majority of professionals in the state already discourage or do not perform these procedures, and that the procedure was 'an absolute last resort.'
The bill sparked passions from the public, with 168 people expressing support for the bill online and 95 signaling opposition.
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