Spotlight - 10.2019

6 IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Fotos: drop of light/Shutterstock.com; Pavel Hlystov, iStockphoto, Thomas Vogel/iStock.com, ddp images

Spotlight 10/

A cat’s perspective: I’ll

keep my claws, thanks

UNITED STATES

Scratch that

MEDIUM US

New York may become the first state to make

illegal a practice many say is simply cruelty to

animals: the declawing of cats.

“Declawing is a convenience surgery ... that

offers no benefit to the cat,” Brian Shapiro of

the Humane Society of the United States told

The New York Times. He also said that the proce-

dure causes “an increase in biting” and other

unwanted behavior, which often leads to the

cat being given to an animal shelter. In the US,

this frequently results in the cat being put

down.

Arguments against making the practice ille-

gal have come mostly from veterinary groups.

Some argue that the surgery, called onychecto-

my, should be allowed “when the alternative is

abandonment or euthanasia”; and when certain

medical conditions, such as hemophilia or im-

mune disorders, make cats’ claws particularly

dangerous to owners.

Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal isn’t buy-

ing it. She said such a law would help to stop

those who “think their furniture is more im-

portant than their cat,” and added this: “There

is really never a good reason for a cat to be de-

clawed,” she said, “from the cat’s point of view.”

The proposed law has passed the legislature

and awaits the governor’s signature.

animal shelter

[(ÄnIm&l )Selt&r]

, Tierheim

assemblywoman

[E(sembli)wUmEn]

, Abgeordnete

convenience [kEn(vi:niEns]

, Bequemlichkeits-

cruelty [(kru:Elti]

, Grausamkeit

declaw [)di:(klO:]

, die Krallen entfernen

put down [pUt (daUn]

, einschläfern

surgery [(s§:dZEri]

, Operation, OP

veterinary [(vetErEneri]

, tierärztlich

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