Veterinary medicine: cat declawing.

Assembly Member Lee, joined by a constellation of coauthors, frames a measure that redefines feline declawing as a veterinary procedure constrained to therapeutic purposes while broadening the scope of veterinary practice to include tendonectomy and related claw-removal for medical necessity.

The central change adds a new provision to the Business and Professions Code stating that onychectomy, tendonectomy, surgical claw removal, or any alteration of a feline’s toes, claws, or paws shall be performed solely for a therapeutic purpose defined as medically necessary to address an existing or recurring infection, disease, injury, or abnormal condition that jeopardizes the feline’s health. Cosmetic or aesthetic reasons are expressly excluded. The section also preserves a limited exception for nail trimming or non-surgical claw mitigation devices. It clarifies that these procedures are not covered by the owner-of-one’s-own-animals exemption. Violations may be grounds for license denial, suspension, revocation, or fines by the veterinary board, and the measure treats non-therapeutic performance as a crime under existing veterinary statutes.

Beyond the new 4826.8 provision, the bill amends 4826 to keep the broad definition of veterinary practice while adding the claw-alteration procedures to the statute’s enumerated activities, and it amends 4827 to maintain broad exemptions for private ownership and routine farm or testing activities, while expanding clarified training and reporting requirements. The measure adds a four-hour training standard for shelter staff who administer certain vaccines or medications under protocols, and it requires shelters not registered with the board to report adverse events. It also expands disciplinary grounds in 4883 and creates parallel provisions in 4.5 to address unprofessional conduct, false advertising, and prohibitions on certain practices or misrepresentations, including restrictions related to cannabis-licensing relationships and board-certification claims.

Implementation provisions establish that local ordinances enacted before January 1, 2026, limiting the identified feline declawing procedures may remain in effect, and the bill contemplates conditional operative triggers involving Assembly Bill 1502 for related amendments. The measure states that no state reimbursement is required for any new costs arising from these changes, noting the costs would stem from criminal or licensing provisions rather than general state funding. Together, the provisions situate feline claw-altering procedures within the California Veterinary Medical Board’s regulatory framework, linking clinical practice standards, enforcement mechanisms, and local governance to formalized limits on non-therapeutic declawing.