by Chris Jones

Upholstery across the city became a little less safe last Thursday, when some animal lovers advisory committee to the Board of Supervisors proposed that the city ban the practice of declawing cats. The surgery involves removing the last bone in each digit on a cat's paw to extract the animal's claw. This writer grew up here and had never even conceived of chopping off a cat's claws until going away to college in the midwest, where declawing house cats is a routine practice, along with shamelessly visiting all-you-can-eat buffets and calling soda "pop." The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on proposed legislation outlawing cat declawing by the end of the year.