New Ohio Senate bill receives support from shelters looking to protect cat health

In 2014, 14-year-old Jake Wherley’s parents adopted a 9-year-old calico cat, named Mackenzie, from Paws and Prayers, a pet rescue shelter in Cuyahoga Falls. 

On the surface, Mackenzie behaved like any other cat, but her lack of claws quickly became an issue when the Wherley’s adopted a younger, playful kitten.

Since Mackenzie was older, she was accustomed to living without claws, but didn’t know how other cats use them, like how they sometimes playful “swat” each other, which upset Mackenzie and caused her to have a few scratches.

“If you’re in a fist fight with someone, and your opponent got brass knuckles and you don’t,” Wherley, volunteer coordinator for Paws and Prayers, said. “I don’t think that’s going to work in your favor a whole lot.”

After cats undergo declawing procedures, they experience both physical and mental changes as they struggle to defend themselves and perform daily tasks, said Tanya Jonda, executive director of One of a Kind Pet Rescue, a pet rescue agency in Akron. 

Declawing cats is currently legal in Ohio, however, to protect cat health, senators Al Cutrona and Hearcel Craig sponsored Senate Bill 252, which would make declawing illegal in most cases.

The bill does have an exemption in cases where a cat’s claw becomes  infected, injured or experiences another abnormal claw condition.

Cutrona and Craig introduced the bill on Aug. 3, with Senator Casey Weinstein as a co-sponsor. The bill already had its first hearing before  the Agriculture and Natural Resources committee, but it has yet to be reviewed by the committee, which will determine if the bill moves forward  to the senate.

If the bill becomes a law, Ohio would become the 6th state where declawing is illegal.

In a statement, Craig said he views declawing as an “irreversible amputation,” which can cause long-term harm to cats that undergo the procedure.

“As one of the sponsors, I’m concerned about preventing unnecessary suffering to animals while preserving veterinarians’ ability to treat genuine medical problems,” he said.

Jonda said the process of declawing involves placing the cat under sedation and surgically removing the last digit of the joint, or a cat’s toes.

Typically, most owners choose to declaw a cat’s front paws, but some may choose to declaw the  back paws as well, according to Chalan Lowry, director of the Portage Animal Protective League.

Since the procedure is similar to removing the last digit of every finger for a human, Jonda views the procedure as inhumane, especially when the surgery is botched.

For example, if veterinarians choose to extract the cat’s nail bed or rush the operation, the claws can start to regrow incorrectly under the skin within the bed of the flesh, she said.

Although corrective surgeries can be performed, in the event of an ingrown claw, this doesn’t guarantee the cat will no longer experience emotional damage, which can stem from these operations, according to Jonda.

“The natural instinct of a cat is to use its claws, so it will use claws to dig in the litter box, as I mentioned, it will use claws to climb, whether it’s on furniture or on cat towers,” Jonda said. “An outdoor or an indoor cat, they will still try to climb because in their mind, they have claws that accommodate that.”

Other side effects of the operation include becoming prone to arthritis and long-term pain in their limbs, said Dr. Valerie Shaker, a veterinarian at the Vent Center of Hudson who is opposed to declawing.

For cats, scratching is also a way to alleviate stress, similar to how guinea pigs and hamsters chew on wood blocks, Wherley said.

“Cats use their claws in many, many ways, and I think taking that away from them is a lot more of hindrance than people might necessarily consider or know,” he said.

The main reason pet owners can choose to declaw their cats is because cats may damage things like furniture from scratching, said Lowry.

Lowry suspects there are cases where pet owners have their cats declawed because of health concerns.

“I think that there are occasions where, for example, someone might be diabetic or might have a medical issue with an immune system problem, where they can’t risk a scratch or a bite,” Lowry said.

The proposed bill comes at a time, where, in Ohio, shelters like Paws and Prayers, One of a Kind Pets and the Portage APL say they are noticing a decline in declawed cats being surrendered to them.

So far, in 2025, only one declawed cat has been taken in by Paws and Prayers’, a decrease from the eight cats the shelter received in 2021.

Jonda said declawing was a popular surgery in the ‘70s and was not considered as “taboo” as it is today. 

“I had family members that did that. They were like, ‘Hey, I got a kitten. She gets declawed next week and spaded,’” she said. “It’s just kind of a normal, natural thing [at the time], but, thankfully, we’ve learned a lot about it, and hopefully it’s going to be a thing of the past.”

When Werley’s parents adopted Mackenzie, it was his first time learning about declawed cats. A a member of of Generation Z, he thinks others around his age consider the practice “outdated.”

“I think that’s certainly an outdated practice that was probably the culture behind that or the stigma, I should say, behind cat declawing was probably already starting to turn by the time I was growing up,” he said.

Craig is optimistic that SB 252 will also result in a drop in the number of cats being surrendered to shelters. He said after California banned the practice in 2009, the number of cats surrendered to shelters dropped 43%.

“Overall, experience in other jurisdictions suggests bans reduce the number of cats subjected to declawing without causing increased shelter intake or euthanasia,” he said.

After declawing procedures, cat owners may notice their cats behaving more aggressively as they learn to cope with no longer having claws, according to Jonda.

“They can become angry and lash out because they’re not able to express these natural instincts,” Jonda said.

Although shelters like One of a Kind Pets, Paws and Prayers and the Portage APL take in declawed cats, they said they are are unable to provide treatments that will alleviate these cats’ life-long pain.

“There’s absolutely nothing we can do,” Jonda said. “That cat is considered to be mutilated and deformed, and they’re going to have that pain for the rest of their lives.”

If the bill were to pass, Shaker thinks it would help pet owners understand the harms of declawing and motivate them to consult their veterinarian for what options are available to them.

This education includes looking into other ways as to how cats can safely scratch and use their claws without harming others like placing soft plastic nail caps on cat’s claws, regularly trimming their nails and purchasing scratch pads.

“Environmental enrichment; getting them cat trees, giving them corrugated cardboard, scratching posts, getting things that hang from the door that they can scratch — those are good options,” Shaker said.

Wherley’s love for Mackenzie led him to educate himself about the declawing process and its alternatives, which shares with others in hopes of preventing cats from being declawed and, like Mackenzie, becoming vulnerable.

“Mackenzie kind of helped plant that seed and allowed me to sort of do some digging through the years about declawing,” he said. “Having some of that knowledge and firsthand experience of seeing a declawed cat, I think certainty has helped expand my mind and, hopefully, winning people over on the ‘not-declaw-cat side.’”