There’s a lot of injustice in the world, and not all its victims have a voice. Enter New Hampshire State Representative Mike Bordes. He’s a ‘republican’ from the Lakes region who voted to allow abortions in the late months of pregnancy. He’s also anti-parental rights and blocked efforts to remove porn from public schools, which suggests he might be okay with declawing minors (removing their genitals). As proof, he had a chance to vote against the genital mutilation thing but chose not to vote at all.
Brodes is also the serial submitter of bills to ban the declawing of cats. I’m not partial to the practice, but a lot of people have indoor cats who never go outdoors, and as a former cat owner, I can see the appeal. They wreck things, and the last two I had sharpened their claws on the cinderblocks holding up my plywood coffee table (that was thirty years ago). I did not get them declawed in part because it was never something I’d do (and I couldn’t afford it back then if I’d been inclined).
I do not think we need a law banning it.
If cat ladies want to abort their kitty’s claws -presumably with good reason – I think it’s a question of choice. Women, we are told, have a right to do whatever they please with their … cats. And, I’ve no objection in part because I’ve met more than a few declawed cats in my life, and they do not seem unhappy and are no less cat-like than any other, minus the incidental claw-induced property damage or injuries and personal discomfort that often follow. And declawing doesn’t kill them, but again – I’d never do it myself.
There is, perhaps, a latent cat-related Second Amendment right lurking in my subconscious. Do not disarm kitty!
Mr. Bordes could work that angle, and it might even get him some votes, but the more likely outcome is that should the House vote to pass the change to Rule 44, this bill and many others will get tabled in committee so legislators can move on to more meaningful and productive matters.
