“There really is no other side. So it frustrates me when they try and make another side,” shared Dr. Jennifer Conrad, a veterinarian and animal rights activist, when discussing declawing: a harmful procedure in which a cat’s toe bones are amputated. The procedure debilitates the animal, often under the guise of preventing cats from scratching.
Over the past twenty-five years, Dr. Conrad has worked tirelessly raising awareness about the harmful effects of declawing. The founder of the Paw Project in 2000, Conrad and the Paw Project help rehabilitate declawed cats and work to abolish the practice of declawing nation-wide. Conrad’s fight against the inhumane procedure has taken her from small local efforts to ban the surgery in California to statewide legislative victories in New York.
As a veterinarian that specializes in exotic animals, Conrad never had to learn about declawing in school. And outside of America, the surgery is relatively uncommon. It is banned in about forty countries, including large parts of Europe, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and most Canadian provinces. However, up to 24% of American household cats have undergone the surgery. Often requested by pet owners so that cats will stop scratching furniture, the procedure is solely for the convenience of the owner, not the animal. Cats that are declawed are more likely to experience pain and joint stiffness, as well as various behavioral issues such as aggression, biting, and periuria (urinating outside of the litter box).
For Conrad, it wasn’t until years into her career, after repairing the paws of a declawed lion, when she first came to the realization that a change needed to be made. “That day, the deputy to the mayor of West Hollywood had come to visit me because he had found a declawed cat,” recalls Conrad. “I said, ‘You know, we should just make it illegal to declaw in West Hollywood,’ thinking, you know, I had the deputy to the mayor, why not make it illegal? And he said, ‘Okay, let’s look into doing that.’”
The conversation resulted in America’s first citywide declawing ban in West Hollywood in 2003. The success became a catalyst for seven more Californian cities to ban the surgery, propelling Conrad to take on her biggest challenge yet: New York.
In 2014, Conrad recruited Linda Rosenthal, a member of the New York State assembly, who aided Conrad in bringing the goal of a state-wide declawing ban to fruition. “We sat and had lunch with her, told her the problem, and she understood.”
As a New York representative, Rosenthal had already passed other bills in regards to animal protection. “I knew that New York was really lagging behind other states when it came to protecting animals,” shared Linda in my interview with her. “ So [when asked about declawing] I said, ‘of course,’ because it’s so cruel.”
Throughout the process of getting declawing banned, Rosenthal acted as the sponsor of the bill. “My job was to advocate for it, talk to my colleagues about it, and try to get good press about it,” said Rosenthal.
But the process of passing the bill was very turbulent. The bill, passed in 2014, faced persistent opposition from the veterinary community, delaying its passage for five years.
One roadblock was the ASPCA’s refusal to support the ban. The organization’s stance was extremely unclear: “They want to say the declawing ban is bad, which they do in their position statement. But they also say they don’t want it banned. It’s very odd how they do that,” shared Conrad.
The Association’s primary qualm with the ban is that they believe it doesn’t work. They think that if owners cannot declaw their cat, then less cats will be adopted, forcing more animals into shelters. Actual studies prove otherwise.
In a study in British Columbia, Canada about the impacts of a declawing ban, researchers found that in the three years after the British Columbia banned the surgery, less cats were surrendered in comparison to the three years before the ban. This is because declawing removes a cat’s primary line of defense, pushing them to overcompensate for their claws by biting or exhibiting aggressive, territorial behavior–often resulting in owners abandoning them. When bans are enacted and declawing stops, “they’re [cats] not in pain, so they’re not showing these behavior problems,” analyzed Conrad, therefore decreasing the number of shelter admittances.
Regardless, the ASPCA’s statement made the legislative process extremely difficult. “Legislators think, ‘Well, if ASPCA doesn’t think bans work, why should we make a ban?’” said Conrad.
The NYSVMS (New York State Veterinary Medical Society) proved to be another challenge. A trade organization, the NYSVMS represents thousands of veterinarians across the state. This means the NYSVMS’ opposition was for an entirely different reason: money.
Declawing is one of the most profitable procedures a veterinarian can perform. Veterinarians charge hundreds of dollars for a standard surgery which typically takes thirty to sixty minutes. As up to 24% of domestic American cats are declawed, a ban means less opportunities to perform the profitable surgery.
While organizations may appear to be scholarly societies of veterinarians, the association is for the benefit of humans involved, not the animals being cared for. They protect the veterinarians and follow the profits. In fact, the NYSVMS actively advocated against the bill. “They paid lobbyists to oppose it and to go to all the members [veterinarians] and keep pushing against the bill,” said Rosenthal.
Dissent from individual veterinarians is another reason why the Paw Project has been so persistent in getting states to crack down on declawing. “We want the state to intervene because so many veterinarians are failing at doing what’s right,” shared Conrad. “Here’s the situation. Let’s say a client comes in and says, ‘I want my cat declawed.’ If you’re a veterinarian and you have a 20 minute, at most, appointment, you can sit there and try and talk them [cat owners] out of it, and then you don’t make any money. Or you can say, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’ And then you make $800 or $1200 for declawing the cat.”
Trade organizations, like the NYSVMS, state other reasons for opposing a declawing ban as well. Many believe that a ban would mean over-policing veterinarians who do not want to be regulated. But veterinary medicine is already an extremely regulated industry. “We’re not allowed to practice without a license. We’re not allowed to practice without permits, you know, we’re highly regulated. Certainly as much as human doctors are regulated,” said Conrad.
These flawed justifications stretched on for five years. “Every time we nixed one of their excuses, they came up with another one,” recalled Rosenthal. “So that’s why it took so long. Because you’d assume, well, the veterinarians know what they’re doing and they’re against it, so maybe it’s not a good bill.”
Despite these efforts from opposition, support for the ban across New York continued to grow, culminating in a state-wide declawing ban. On July 22nd, 2019, New York officially declared declawing illegal.
“The day the bill passed was really very triumphant. It was just, you know, first in the nation,” said Rosenthal.
When I asked Rosenthal why the declawing bill was so important to her, she said it was because it’s the right thing to do. “It’s a lot of work you do to protect animals. Something that they can’t thank you for. You’re doing it because it’s the right thing. So for a person like me, that spurs me on.”
Rosenthal describes Conrad in the same way. “She’s been on this for twenty years or more, and she keeps going.”
Since New York banned the surgery in 2019, Maryland (2022), Virginia (2024), and Massachusetts (2025) have also passed statewide bans. But Conrad and the Paw Project are not stopping there. As Conrad said, “My ultimate goal is to put the Paw Project [her organization] out of business by accomplishing the goal of making declawing illegal in North America.”
Over the past twenty-five years, Dr. Conrad has worked tirelessly raising awareness about the harmful effects of declawing.