Onychectomy (declawing)
Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 335
This is about Orly Degani and animal rights.
Let me start by saying, to a degree I'm not against animal rights or the activists that try to advance those rights. The City of West Hollywood passed an ordinance that prohibits declawing of cats. Meow...., (West Hollywood Mun. Code, sec. 9.49.01.010(g) adopted Ordinance No. 03-656, adding chapter 9.49, entitled "Ban on Onychectomy (Declawing)". Essentially what the law does is ban all declawing of cats except for a therapeutic purpose.
Maybe I've been a trial lawyer to long. I don't know. The older statesmen-like trial lawyers tell me we have a shelf life. Mine isn't quite up yet but who knows it may be getting close. Sort of like boxers. Boxers have only so many fights in them. Maybe trial lawyers, like boxers, don't know their warranty has run out until they enter the ring one time too many. Who knows, and probably who cares. Let's get back to cats.
The law prohibits veterinarians from declawing cats.
Generally speaking how do you prove it? You can't call a cat to the stand..... Lawyer Lombardi: "Your Honor I'm calling Fluffy as my next witness." Judge: "Mr. Bailiff swear Fluffy in as a witness." Bailiff: "Fluffy, raise your right paw. Do you swear to purrr the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you ... Morris?"
Now for the past twenty-six years I've practiced before the Courts in Iowa as a civil trial lawyer. It surprised me that a lawyer could make this cat declawing stuff into a practice. But Orly Degani, founder of the Los Angeles Lawyers for Animals represented the City of West Hollywood pro bono. That means she agreed to do the legal work for nothing. I thought, "Wow! Dudette how do you do that?" After all we all gotta pay the bills. How do you make a practice just for animals? Do you meet with dogs and cats, llamas and sheep to prepare them for trial?
Being a personal injury lawyer I guess I could just advertise the area of practice as a Purrrrr-seronal Injury Lawyer. And when my new found clientele were involved in a dog or cat fight I'd ask that a CAT Scan be purrrr-formed. If it appears they suffered a head injury a PET Scan would be necessary.
Thinking I would try this out I called upon two experts that are familiar to me. Oreo and Molly are two dogs I know. They are a friend's dogs. They like to come to the office, but seldom are allowed. Molly likes to wander about and gets lost so she doesn't come very often. Oreo barks too much and won't be quiet for client-calls so she too hadn't visited much. But I thought, what the heck let's see if this could work. So I took them to the office and tried to interview them. But Oreo just kept barking until I gave her a treat. And Molly wasn't much help because she just wanted to go outside to sniff out the bunnies and chase birds. With as many times as she wantd to go outside I got nothing done.
All in all I don't think it's going to work for me. Orly your niche is safe for now.