Your tax dollars hard at work. Our lawmakers in the Assembly Monday voted to ban the declawing of cats. It would make New Jersey the first state in the country to do so. All other problems having apparently been solved, 43 Assembly members voted in favor of this nonsense. It now moves to the Senate.

The bill's sponsor Assemblyman Troy Singleton said after the vote, "Declawing is a barbaric practice that more often than not is done for the sake of convenience rather than necessity."

Okay, let's talk about that. Is it convenient to not have your furniture torn to shreds, or is it a necessity? Maybe Singleton has the means to constantly replace his furniture, but the average New Jerseyan does not. And as far as it being barbaric, certain veterinarians are objecting to this legislation and point out that declawing technology has evolved and is not as invasive as it once was. Veterinarians also point out a ban on declawing may hurt the adoption rate. It stands to reason those who would like to give a shelter cat a home but won't tolerate their furniture being destroyed will only give that cat a home if they can have it declawed. Without that as an option, those people will not adopt. When they do not adopt, more cats will be euthanized in the shelters.

Singleton needs to think like a cat. If he were a cat, would he rather be declawed then live out his life with a nice family taking care of him, or would he rather be killed in a shelter with no one to adopt him? Seems like a clear choice to me. Then again I still have this nagging suspicion that New Jersey remains highest in the nation for property taxes and work should be done by our lawmakers on those kinds of real issues, not pussyfooting around with things like declawing legislation so hey, what do I know?

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