Cats 'farmed for skins in EU'

[alva]

Originally posted by Spec
I hate fur coats and all that ****.....but what I'm wondering is.....why is it worst because the fur is made out of cats and dogs? Raccoons, wolfs and other animals suffer just as much!! Any fur coat from any animal should be banned!!


Spec.

[TCO]

How about tennis racket strings?

[Sava]

Most are synthetic.

[Az]

I have no problem with furs with other animals ( Not endangered ), because they're not our friends. Cats and Dogs are our friends.

[Lancer]

"How about tennis racket strings?"

Sure, I'll play.

[Lancer]

Cats put up with you, I'm not convinced they are your friend.

[Sava]

Not true.

[Az]

yeah, I have my doubts, also. But people seem to love them, even I do. Dogs however, are family.

[Sava]

City keeps vets' paws off cat claws
Advertisement


By Vincent J. Schodolski
Tribune national correspondent

May 8, 2003

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Memo to Mungojerrie, Rumpelteazer, Macavity and Bustopher Jones: You can relax, cats. As of Wednesday, it is illegal for some human, more interested in protecting a sofa than in you, to force you to undergo an onychectomy to remove your claws.

In what is believed to be the first such law in the country, this small city in the midst of Los Angeles banned the declawing of cats through a City Council vote last month.

And while the cats here might not have fantastical names like those conjured by T.S. Eliot in his 1939 "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," they live in a very secure place. This animal-friendly city has already done much to protect the rights of animal residents.

There are no animal "owners" here. Anyone who cohabits with an animal is known as an animal "guardian." People who are disabled or senior citizens sharing a rent-controlled apartment with an animal in West Hollywood can't be evicted.

The city even provides pooper-scoopers and trash bags in parks so pet owners can clean up after Fido.

And other measures are under consideration to prohibit what many see as mutilations, according to City Council members.

However, the town has not banned the neutering of cats. "There is no prohibition. In fact we encourage it," said Tracy Bauer, a West Hollywood City Council staff member.

Hernan Molino, an aide to Councilman John Duran, said the council might ban ear- and tail-cropping next.

He said the city's attitude toward animals--they are never called pets--is a logical extension of the city's very progressive political agenda.

This is an upscale community with a large population of gays and lesbians that has a history of taking up liberal and cutting-edge causes. So it is not surprising that many people praised the new ban on declawing.

"The city became a city in 1984, and there was a movement composed of people with a progressive agenda, with liberal ideas," Molino said.

He said there was strong support for laws protecting seniors and gays and lesbians.

"Many people who live here do not have children. For them their animals are their children," Molino said. "So I think protecting animal rights is a natural extension of the [progressive] agenda."

There appears to be strong support among this city's 37,000 residents.

"Why should we have the right to take away an animal's means of self-defense?" said Bill Smith, a West Hollywood resident who talked about the new ordinance as he walked his dog.

It is difficult to say how effective the new law will be in curbing cat declawing. West Hollywood is a small place--just 1.9 square miles--surrounded by Los Angeles, where it remains legal to remove a cat's claws.

Many of those opposed to the declawing operation consider it cruel because it involves the amputation of the cat's front toes.

Veterinarians are reluctant to do the surgery and frequently counsel people with cats to try other measures to save their furniture. Training a cat to use a scratching post is one such measure. And now there are tiny plastic sheaths that fit on a cat's paws to blunt their destructive capabilities.

Molino said he started pressing for the declawing ban shortly after visiting a wildlife rescue station and being shown what was involved in the operation.

"It is horrible," he said. "It is an amputation."

Molino said that after he told his boss they began pushing for the law that took effect Wednesday.

About the same time that West Hollywood passed its ban, the city's representative in the California State Assembly sought to impose a statewide ban on the procedure. But Assemblyman Paul Koretz fell two votes short of getting his measure out of a legislative committee.

Among those opposed to the declawing ban was the California Veterinary Medical Association.

It argued that denying people the option of having an animal's claws removed could lead to an increase in the abandonment of cats, further straining crowded animal shelters.

West Hollywood has only three veterinarian offices, and they report carrying out very few onychectomies each year.


Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune

More good news for cats!!

[alva]

I never understud why anyone would do this? If you value your furniture higher then a cat, don't take a cat, that simple....

[Sava]

And there are ways to prevent furniture destruction. LIKE SPENDING TEN ****ING DOLLARS ON A SCRATCHING POST!

[Az]

If these things are illegal, why castration is legal?

[Sava]

Controls the population. More cats than people willing to care for them = bad

[Az]

that's a bull**** argument. I bet you would mind getting your balls cut off because of control of the population.

No way I am getting my dog neutered.

[alva]

Originally posted by Azazel
If these things are illegal, why castration is legal?

Necesairly evil

Condoms for cats don't work, there willing but no able