Summary: This brief summary discusses the legal status of non-therapeutic surgeries on companion animals such as tail docking, de-barking, and de-clawing of cats.
There are several surgical procedures in common practice that do not have a medical benefit for the animal. These procedures are called non-therapeutic procedures and include tail docking, ear cropping, devocalization, and declawing. The first of these four procedures are typically referred to cosmetic surgeries because they are used solely to alter the appearance of an animal. The latter two are convenience surgeries because they are used to inhibit an animal’s natural behaviors such as barking or scratching. Several states have moved to regulate or outright ban some of these procedures but regulation is inconsistent at the national level.