The Divisive Debate: Should Pet Surgeries Be Restricted In El Paso?

If you want to find out how vicious the internet can be, go online and take a position on cat declawing. Any online conversation about elective surgeries for pets will go nuclear faster than you can say “Godwin’s Law”.

El Paso city rep Chris Canales wants to change some of the rules about what kinds of elective pet surgeries are allowed here.  The procedures being targeted include declawing, ear cropping, tail docking as well as “debarking and de-meowing” procedures.

In a story filed by KFOX-14, El Paso veterinarian Roger Freund says that he thinks these kind of elective pet surgery decisions are best left between the pet-owner and their vet.  Freund also notes that, although he thinks some of the targeted procedures can be useful, he hasn’t performed any of those kinds of surgeries in over a decade.

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It’s no exaggeration that elective pet surgeries are a very, VERY divisive topic.  Volumes have been written either defending or condemning the practice of declawing alone. Here’s the first comment on the KFOX story:

“It’s disgusting the people who mutilate their pets for their own convenience or fashion appeal. Pit bulls shouldn’t have anything copped and doctors should be anti mutilation but anything to make a quick buck.”

Here’s the very next comment:

“The Socialist People’s Republic of El Paso is turning into California.”

For the record, as of this writing on January 2024, declawing is not 100% banned in California. It is in three states, though…Rhode Island, New York and Maryland.

So where are you on the issue? Are you a disgusting monster or a godless communist? Those seem to be the two options here.