What to know
- The province could ban declawing, ear cropping and debarking later this year.
- The proposal comes as an amendment to the 2019 Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) Act.
- Experts from the Toronto Humane Society say the move is long overdue as other jurisdictions in Canada already have similar policies in place.
Ontarians could see the banning of unnecessary pet surgeries like declawing, ear cropping and debarking later this year, a move that animal advocates say “feels late.”
An amendment to the Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) Act that was passed in 2019, the proposal to ban Medically Unnecessary Procedures (MUPs) would prohibit select MUPs for cats and dogs, including the aforementioned declawing, ear cropping and debarking.
According to the Ontario Regulatory Registry website, this move will “promote animal welfare by ensuring procedures that alter natural anatomy are only performed when medically necessary” and “set clear standards for individuals who may perform or assist with MUPs, including veterinarians and pet owners.”
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Dr. Linda Jacobson, a veterinarian and the Director of Science and Advancement at the Toronto Humane Society, says the term ‘declawing’ is a misnomer because the practice doesn’t just remove a cat’s claws — it involves amputation of a cat’s toe bones.
“People think it just means taking off the claw, but it’s actually an amputation of the first joint of that toe. So, if that was you, that would be the first joint of your finger that the nail is on,” Jacobson says. “And then, because there are so many toes — there’s 10 in the front — and if they do the back as well, that’s another eight. So, you’re doing 18 amputations, each of which has a potential for long-term pain.”
Jacobson describes ear cropping as “removing part of the cartilage of the ear to get it into a shape that is wanted” and debarking as “a surgical procedure where they actually go into the voice box.”
Although she’s thrilled the province is finally banning these MUPs, Jacobson says it’s a measure that’s long overdue.
“Every other jurisdiction in Canada has some form of ban, whether that’s regulatory or legislative. Some European countries have had these kinds of bans for decades,” she says.
Training should come first, experts say
While excessive cat scratching and dogs barking all day long can be annoying and sometimes frustrating for pet owners, Beverley McKee, a certified dog behaviour consultant at Toronto Humane Society, has this reminder to give: these behaviours are normal and it often means a pet is trying to communicate their needs.
“We take an approach that looks first of all, at what the function of the behaviour is, and then determining, are we meeting those inherent needs of the animal? Because the function is, ‘I bark because I’m trying to communicate something,’ so are we meeting the needs of the animal,” McKee says.
Despite how daunting training might seem to pet owners — especially new pet owners — McKee says once a behavioural issue has been identified, the training takes less time than one might believe.
“Once people connect with a credible behaviour source and say, ‘This is the problem,’ they’re conversely, really quite pleased, because [they expected] it would take months and months and months of training and way too much effort.”
The practice of ear cropping can cause a dog to lose their ability to communicate with other dogs and declawing can introduce chronic pain and phantom pains to cats, says Jacobson. She points out that when a cat loses their primary defense mechanism — scratching — they could turn to biting.
“A normal cat, if it feels defensive, will hiss. [They] might swat at somebody without actually hurting them, but they lose that initial form of defense, and then they might just go straight to a bite,” she says.
There’s currently no implementation date posted on the regulatory website. The public can continue to comment on the proposal until Feb. 5.
