(Image Courtesy The Paw Project)

Late last year, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance banning the declawing of animals within city limits before state legislation preventing such regulation went into effect on New Years.

But Los Angeles wasn't alone.

West Hollywood passed its own declawing ban back in 2003.
Several other cities joined LA and passed similar ordinances in 2009, including San Francisco, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Culver City and Santa Monica.

All managed to put laws into effect before the window of opportunity closed on the first of January.

City legislators raced to pass their ordinances before the calendar year was out in order to ensure their laws would be grandfathered in before a state bill signed by Governor Schwarzenegger back in July kicked in.

The state law now prevents cities and counties from regulating the practice of veterinary medicine.

But these laws didn't pass without opposition.

One of the biggest opponents of declawing bans is the California Veterinary Medical Association, which represents over 6,100 working veterinarians in the state.

After West Hollywood banned declawing, the CVMA attempted to sue the city and has fought similar legislation ever since.

This past year they wrote letters to officials in Los Angeles urging them to leave such a decision up to the pet owner and their veterinarian, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Dr. Mark Nunez, president of CVMA, argues that such bans are useless because declawing procedures are only done as an absolute last resort.
However, Jennifer Conrad, founder and director of The Paw Project and working veterinarian, believes that the CVMA has ulterior motives when it comes to declawing.

"CVMA is a trade organization and is only interested in the bottom line of the veterinary industry," said Conrad. "There are veterinarians, not all, but there are veterinarians who have written me letters basically saying they are making $75-85,000 a year declawing cats and they're not about to give it up."

She also claims that the CVMA used their influence and a heap of campaign donations, which led the state to pass legislation prohibiting cities and counties from passing ordinances, to ban declawing.

Nunez, on the other hand, maintains that the city legislation on declawing is poorly written by unqualified people and causes more havoc then help.

"The biggest most significant observation that I've seen, which I've predicted, is that it [the legislation] has created an awful lot of confusion," said Nunez. "Some people have heard that the city of LA has a ban on declawing and are wondering if this affects them if they live in Van Nuys or Studio City. The practice of veterinarian medicine should be regulated by a medical board, made up of licensed professionals; city council members do not fulfill these requirements."

Los Angeles Councilmember Bernard C. Parks, 8th District, sees this issue a bit differently.

"You could say that about any ordinance we have," said Parks.  "I don't know any city attorneys that work in the field they write ordinances for."

While some cities were able to pass declawing bans before the state legislation went into place, others were not.

What this likely means is that the fight over declawing isn't close to being over.

"We will try to make a state wide ban on declawing and eventually we will try to make it illegal in every state," said Conrad.