Laws Banning Cat Declawing
2025 U.S. Animal Protection Laws State Rankings
Cat Declawing Laws
A new trend in 2025 was the enactment of laws prohibiting the declawing of cats. Cat declawing, or onychectomy, is an invasive surgical procedure which involves amputating the last bone of each of the cat’s toes, and has been analogized to severing a human’s fingers at the final knuckle. Too often, guardians of cats will elect to have their cat unnecessarily declawed in order to curb what are perceived as undesirable behaviors, such as scratching furniture. Unfortunately, this “solution” can have unanticipated effects. When cats undergo declawing procedures, they suffer both physically and psychologically. This suffering often manifests in adverse behaviors, such as biting, barbering, aggression, and inappropriate elimination. To read more about cat declawing and alternatives, visit aldf.org/declawing.
The first U.S. state to ever ban cat declawing was New York in 2019, and the first (and thus far, only) territory to enact such a ban was the District of Columbia in 2023. In 2025, the number of states banning cat declaw doubled, from three to six, with California, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island all enacting laws that year. Each of these six states, and D.C., now prohibits the unnecessary declawing of cats, and limits the procedure to cases in which the declawing is necessary for a “therapeutic purpose,” such as to treat a cat’s injury or illness. Minnesota also passed a law in 2025 which requires the Board of Veterinary Medicine to consult with veterinarians who are then tasked with advising the legislature on cat declawing.
“Declawing isn’t a manicure — it’s an amputation that needlessly harms cats to spare sofas,” says Senior Legislative Affairs Manager Jennifer Hauge. “In passing a total cat declaw ban, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and California reflect a broader consensus that animal welfare comes first by affirming that the only time a cat should ever purposely lose part of a toe is when a veterinarian determines it’s medically necessary for the animal’s health, not human convenience.”
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