Title
Ordinance amending the City of Pittsburgh Code, Title Six ("conduct"), Article III ("Dogs, Cats and Other Animals"), Chapter 633 ("Dogs and Cats"), by adding a new Section 633.25, prohibiting the declawing of cats.
Body
WHEREAS, research has shown that declawed cats are more prone to defend themselves by biting more often and harder than their clawed counterparts and cat bites are associated with higher infection rates than scratches; and
WHEREAS, major health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Public Health Services, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, all agree that declawing cats to protect humans is "not advised"; and
WHEREAS, behavioral problems of declawed cats, such as increased biting and litter-box aversion, frequently can result in declawed cats being relegated to an outdoor existence to which they are ill-suited because, among other things, they cannot adequately defend themselves; and
WHEREAS, abandoned declawed cats often end up in the public right-of-way where they endanger themselves, where they can cause accidents and thereby imperil people, and where they contribute to Animal Care & Control, community cat rescue, and return to field program resource exhaustion; and
WHEREAS, declawed cats with associated behavioral problems also increase the number of cats relinquished to animal shelters, contributing to the already exhausted City of Pittsburgh shelter system; and
WHEREAS, declawed cats are generally not adoptable from shelters because of behavioral and other issues, and ultimately must be euthanized, thus contributing to shelter worker compassion fatigue; and
WHEREAS, onychectomy, or declawing, and flexor tendonectomy procedures are routinely performed on cats even though the procedures are painful and, cruel, and dangerous to cats and are very seldom medically necessary; and
WHEREAS, onychectomy is not a cosmetic procedure but is in...
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