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Cat declawing ban proposed by Ypsilanti lawmaker

Cat claws
Samira Akil Zaman
/
Creative Commons
Cat claws

A bill that would make it a health violation to declaw cats in Michigan has been introduced by an Ypsilanti State representative.

Concern about the impact of declawing cats started with members of Representative Jimmy Wilson Jr.’s staff.

His legislative and policy director, Leaha Dotson, says she showed her boss data and x-ray results from the national Paw Project. They pointed to lifelong damages from declawing procedures.

“And you can see the harm and the damages in these x-rays. And something that stuck with the rep was seeing what can happen with these cats for a procedure that has no necessary benefit to the cat.”

The bill would make declawing a cat a violation of Michigan’s health code.

Dotson says, if it was passed into law, Michigan would join New York and Maryland as the only other states that ban cat declawing.

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Cathy Shafran was WEMU's afternoon news anchor and local host during WEMU's broadcast of NPR's All Things Considered.
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