Patterico's Pontifications

6/4/2019

The Sad Inconsistency Of New York Values

Filed under: General — Dana @ 2:38 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Because of the cruelty involved in declawing pet cats, the state of New York is on its way to become the first state to outlaw the practice:

New York would be the first state to ban the declawing of cats under legislation heading to a vote in the state Legislature.

The Senate and Assembly are both expected to take up the bill on Tuesday.

Declawing a cat is already illegal in much of Europe as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver.

Supporters of a ban in New York include animal welfare advocates, cat owners and veterinarians who argue the practice is cruel and barbaric since it involves the amputation of a cat’s toes back to the first knuckle.

“New York prides itself on being first,” said the bill’s sponsor in the state Assembly, Manhattan Democrat Linda Rosenthal, who said she expects other states to follow suit. “This will have a domino effect.”

There is opposition to the bill:

The New York State Veterinary Medical Society says the procedure should be allowed as a last resort for felines that won’t stop scratching furniture or humans — or when the cat’s owner has a weakened immune system, putting them at greater risk of infection from a scratch.

The report goes on to point out the penalties in place:

Under the bill, people who violate the ban on declawing a cat could face fines of $1,000. Veterinarians could still perform the procedure for medical reasons, such as infection or injury.

Additionally, the bill is expected to pass both the Senate and Assembly next week, and then it will be up to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign the bill into law.

Given that declawing cats is indeed cruel and barbaric, I see it as reasonable to outlaw or severely limit the practice. Put a slip cover on your damn couch, or just don’t get a cat. However, the inconsistency of New Yorkers and what constitutes the cruel and barbaric is a sad irony, given that Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Reproductive Health Act in January, which allowed women to have abortions up until the point of birth. Abortion is now a ‘fundamental right’ in New York and prohibits all limits on abortion.

What has happened to a people that they can be so outraged at the cruel practice of declawing a cat and demand a law prohibiting the procedure, yet simultaneously demand a law that allows them to have a third-trimester, full-term baby be the recipient of a vicious incision made at the base of their tiny head to allow their brain to be necessarily sucked out, thus collapsing the skull so that they can then be expelled from the woman’s body? It is incomprehensible.

Ironically, the same people that demanded a law guaranteeing unrestricted abortion up until the point of birth ghoulishly celebrated their “win” by breaking out into cheers and applause in the State House, and lighting up One World Trade Center in pink:

Untitled

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

28 Responses to “The Sad Inconsistency Of New York Values”

  1. This is just so f***** up. Heartbreakingly so.

    Dana (779465)

  2. 1. New Yorkers value their cats more than their unborn human children. I don’t know what’s sadder; this fact, or the fact that it doesn’t surprise me…

    Gryph (08c844)

  3. east and west coast progressive values, In the 80s, I didn’t understand why they swooned over Mario Cuomo, the anti kennedy among catholics,

    narciso (d1f714)

  4. ???? The ‘pink lit spire’ image posted is not the spire topping the Empire State Building; believe that’s the ‘Freedom Tower’… as in ‘freedom of choice‘ – constructed to replace the WTC Towers attacked and destroyed on 9/11. ‘This is just so f***** up. Heartbreakingly so.’

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  5. Yes. One World Trade Center. Correction made.

    Dana (779465)

  6. 4, either darn way it is ironic that the spire arising from a spherical sac, though indeed pink, became an iconic image for female reproductive freedom.

    urbanleftbehind (ff06b3)

  7. Well, that’s what can happenwhen you have aone-party government when mostof the platform has not been tested in the court ofpublic opinion.

    There seems to be a loophole for medical reasons so preention of infection.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  8. That’s not teh worst of it.

    the worst is outlawing plastic bags in New York City – this in acitty where most people don’t have cars and theer are no garbage disposals.

    Then they barely may avoid making things worse for charter schools – but there remains a quota.

    Sammy Finkelman (102c75)

  9. There are no other political issues. There is only abortion now. Everything is abortion.

    Nic (896fdf)

  10. Don’t tell that to Pete Buttigieg.

    nk (dbc370)

  11. @5. Three guesses on who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb. 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  12. @11 – Ulysses, Julia and Jimmy Hoffa?

    Gary Hoffman (7ec1de)

  13. Um, this sounds like extreme “whataboutism” to me. The two issues are easily separated, just as capital punishment and abortion can be separated. Literally any cruel act can be juxtaposed here.

    The fact that NY State allows abortion, even during natural labor, does not mean they must allow all other cruel acts. I don’t know why anyone would suggest otherwise.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  14. 13. What part of “New York places more value on the lives of cats than on unborn humans” did you miss?

    Gryph (08c844)

  15. I didn’t miss it. I just object to using the same club to attack all other NY laws. Even good ones. The argument being made here is: “So long as NY has this horrid abortion law, I insist all their other laws be equally bad or worse!”

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  16. 15. Straw man, much? I didn’t see anyone making that argument and it is highly suspect, let alone disingenous, for you to suggest it is being made here.

    Gryph (08c844)

  17. @14. Would ‘New York places more value on the MoMA than on unborn humans’ work better or just confuse you.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  18. Sorry, Kevin. Dana has it right. Nobody should be cruel to animals, but it’s a f***ed way of thought that values them more than unborn babies. Doublethink?

    nk (dbc370)

  19. @18. More like false equivalency. Still, fuss over the crabgrass while the house is on fire GOP wedge 101.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  20. How about: “Oh horrible cruelty, we must outlaw this barbaric practice,” say the same people who say “Oh horrible cruelty that we don’t have a law that allows us to commit this other barbaric practice.”

    Dana (779465)

  21. Ah, New Yorkers. From Dana’s post:

    Declawing a cat is already illegal in much of Europe as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver.

    And then, two paragraphs later:

    “New York prides itself on being first,” said the bill’s sponsor in the state Assembly, Manhattan Democrat Linda Rosenthal, who said she expects other states to follow suit. “This will have a domino effect.”

    New Yorkers have a curious definition of “first.”

    JVW (54fd0b)

  22. Sorry, Kevin. Dana has it right. Nobody should be cruel to animals, but it’s a f***ed way of thought that values them more than unborn babies.

    “My body, my choice as to whether or not to allow my cat to scratch me.”

    JVW (54fd0b)

  23. 21. New York isn’t first in s**t. They all want to be like their erudite, sophisticated brothers and sisters across the pond. Ptooey.

    Gryph (08c844)

  24. Cats are a$$holes. Declawing them is just good sense.

    Also, they spray; skunks got nothing on them, breed like rabbits, kill untold numbers of song birds, and mostly only torture rodents instead of eradicating them.

    Kill’em all I say, it would be a favour to the world.

    lee (f8d029)

  25. My cats are indoor, don’t kill anything. They are healthier being declawed. Lee, it would be a favor to the world if you would STF up.

    LYNN HARGROVE (740caa)

  26. Thank you, LYNN.

    nk (dbc370)

  27. I think most of America also feels that the new abortion laws and the triumphalism in NY (applause and lighting up a building!?) has led to the spate of new anti-abortion bills in some states. Not sure that was the intended consequence.

    And I would agree with Kevin and whataboutism generally, except this ever more drastic action like extreme human abortion and ever more concern for trivia like plastic bags, straws, foie gras bans is now a disturbing pattern.

    Patricia (3363ec)

  28. Gryph, at 21: as a former New Yorker … maybe the moneyed elite want to be like the Brits. The ordinary, working people of New York, though? They’re just people trying to get by, pay off their student loans, save for retirement, etc.

    aphrael (3f0569)


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