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Michigan lawmakers consider amending bill in order to outlaw certain surgical procedures for cats
Lawmakers in Michigan are considering a bill to make it illegal to declaw cats, which many animal advocates and some veterinarians say impedes the felines' natural instincts to climb and scratch.House Bill 4674 would amend the state's Public Health Code to regulate certain surgical procedures performed on cats like the act of declawing. The legislation bans "an onychectomy, a partial or complete phalangectomy, or tendonectomy procedure, or any other surgical procedure that prevents normal 4 functioning of the claws, toes, or paws, on a cat." Declawing involves amputating the last bone on each of the feline's toe."If you look at your fingers, declawing would be like amputating the last section of each finger," veterinarian Louise Murray told animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). "If you were declawed, you would have 10 little short fingers.