Berkeley Anti-Declaw Ord. up for vote this Tuesday 11-10, please help

[Guest guest]

Lindsay Vurek: LDP

Please email the below to friends (especially ones who live in Berkeley)

thank you.

 

Council Member's Jesse Arreguín and Susan Wengraf have sponsored an anti-declaw

ordinance.and it will appear before the Berkeley City Council and Mayor on

Tuesday

 

November 10 at 7 pm at Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

 

Please email or call or fax the Berkeley council members asking them to vote for

the anti-declaw ordinance. See simple sample email below. You also may come

and speak at

 

the council meeting (see below agenda, law background and addresses and link.)

 

This might be of one of the last local California humane laws passed that is

related to anti-declawing (or any other humane laws limiting cruel Veterinary

procedures). This is due

 

to the fact that, the California legislature recently passed SB 762, which takes

away the rights of local governments to limit what procedures Vets can do.

 

The California Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), American Veterinary

Medical Association (AVMA) helped pass this law, which limits local governments

from enacting

 

humane laws -- these groups tend to oppose anything that might limit vets and

their fees, no matter how cruel the procedure is. It was learned at the San

Francisco hearing on SF

 

ordinance that CVMA spent approximately $250,000 to sponsor and promote SB 762

to the state legislature (according to public records).

 

The law takes effect on January 1, 2010, but any local passed before that will

not be changed by SB762.

 

 

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=38274 (Berkeley Council

Agenda for Nov 10th) (see background info. below also)

 

Sample email or call:

 

Dear Council Member (Name) and/or Dear Mayor Bates

 

Please support Council Member's Jesse Arreguín and Susan Wengraf's proposed

ordinance to limit the cruel and painful procedure of cat declawing in Berkeley.

 

Thank you,

(Your name and address if in Berkeley)

 

 

 

 

Please see Berkeley Council members names, phones and emails in list below.

Please see background information below that.

 

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=18496 (website of Berkeley

Council)

(P)Phone & (F)Fax & E-mail

 

Mayor Tom Bates

(510) 981-7100 P

(510) 981-7199 F

mayor

 

District 1 Linda Maio

(510) 981-7110 P

(510) 981-7111 F

lmaio

 

District 2 Darryl Moore

(510) 981-7120 P

(510) 981-7122 F

dmoore

 

District 3 Max Anderson

(510) 981-7130 P

(510) 981-7133 F

manderson

 

District 4 Jesse Arreguin

(510) 981-7140 P

(510) 981-7144 F

jarreguin

 

District 5 Laurie Capitelli

(510) 981-7150 P

(510) 981-7155 F

lcapitelli

 

District 6 Susan Wengraf

(510) 981-7160 P

(510) 981-7166 F

swengraf

 

District 7Kriss Worthington

(510) 981-7170 P

(510) 981-7177 F

kworthington

 

District 8 Gordon Wozniak

(510) 981-7180 P

(510) 981-7188 F

gwozniak

 

 

 

 

Background information on Berkeley Ordinance:

 

Councilmembers Jesse Arreguín and Susan Wengraf

 

Ordinance Banning Animal Declawing

 

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt the first reading of an Ordinance (Attached) prohibiting animal declawing,

absent a therapeutic purpose.

 

FISCAL IMPACTS OF RECOMMENDATION: NONE.

 

CURRENT SITUATION AND ITS EFFECTS:

Starting January 1, 2010, cities will no longer be able to enact local

ordinances banning animal declawing and similar procedures due to the recent

amendment of Business and

 

Professions Code section 460. Therefore, Council must act now if it wishes to

pass this ordinance. If the Council enacts this ordinance now, the second

reading will be on

 

November 17, 2009, and the ordinance would become effective on December 17,

2009, just before the first of next year.

 

There is widespread misunderstanding in the community regarding two surgical

procedures performed on cats. Contrary to most people's understanding,

onychectomy

 

(declawing) is not a simple, single surgery, but ten separate painful

amputations. Declawing involves more than removing just claws. Rather, the last

bone of each toe is amputated,

 

including the claw, bone, joint capsule, nerves, collateral ligaments, and the

extensor and flexor tendons- all critical for normal paw functioning. In human

terms, the procedure is

 

analogous to cutting off each finger at the last joint. Tendonectomy involves

surgically removing a portion of the flexor tendon in each of a cat's toes, thus

preventing the cat from

 

being able to extend the claws.

 

Declawing can result in serious complications, including excruciating pain for

the animal, lameness, arthritis, damage to the radial nerve, infection, abscess,

hemorrhage, bone chips

 

that prevent healing, painful re-growth of deformed claws, and chronic back and

joint pain as shoulder, leg and back muscles weaken. The rate of complication

for declawing

 

procedures is relatively high compared with other so-called " routine "

procedures; one study showed 50% of declawed cats developed short-term

complications and 20%

 

developed long-term complications. Often, cat owners are insufficiently

informed or aware of the nature of the procedure and the serious complications

and changes that may

 

result.

 

Cats that undergo a tendonectomy procedure experience similar complications as

those undergoing declawing, including bleeding, lameness, and infection.

Further, claws continue

 

to grow following tendonectomy; because the cat can no longer extend the claws

to scratch, the cat will not wear down the claws as before. Without proper

trimming and

 

maintenance the nails can curl under into the paw and cause great pain for the

animal. In addition, the nails on cats that have undergone a tendonectomy can

get atypically brittle as

 

the cat ages. Brittle nails are prone to splitting and shattering when trimmed

which is quite painful for the cat.

 

Declawing and tendonectomy are elective procedures which cat owners request and

veterinarians advocate primarily to prevent damage to property or minor personal

injury.

 

Reasonable and humane alternatives exist, including nail trimming, scratching

implements such as carpeted posts and boxes, temporary soft nail caps,

behavioral training for the cat,

 

deterrent sprays, and such simple measures as covering furniture or limiting an

animal's access to certain areas of the home.

 

Declawing is illegal in 25 nations, including the United Kingdom, France,

Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil, Norway and Germany. Yet in the

Unites States, an

 

estimated 25% of cats are declawed. West Hollywood has a ban on declawing while

San Francisco, Santa Monica, and other cities are currently processing a similar

ban.