Bill 240 explained in plain English
Teddy's Law (Anti-Declawing), 2020
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Teddy's Law (Anti-Declawing), 2020 prohibits non-essential cat declawing by requiring a veterinarian to determine it is medically necessary before the procedure can be performed.
This bill, known as Teddy's Law (Anti-Declawing), 2020, amends the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019. It prohibits the declawing of cats unless a veterinarian determines it is medically necessary. The bill defines 'partial digital amputation' as the surgical removal of the last bone of a cat's toes, and 'medically unnecessary veterinary surgery' as surgery not required or not in the animal's best interest. The prohibition applies unless a veterinarian or someone supervised by a veterinarian has decided the surgery is not medically unnecessary. The law came into effect on the day it received Royal Assent.
- Amends the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019, by adding a new section (17.1).
- Prohibits the partial digital amputation (declawing) of cats unless it is determined by a veterinarian, or a person supervised by a veterinarian, to not be a medically unnecessary veterinary surgery.
- Defines 'medically unnecessary veterinary surgery' as surgery not required or not in the animal's overall best interest.
- Defines 'partial digital amputation' as the surgical removal of the third phalanx of each digit on a cat's front or front and rear paws.
- Amends subsection 49 (2) of the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019, to include reference to section 17.1.
- States that the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Sets the short title of the Act as Teddy's Law (Anti-Declawing), 2020.
- Owners of cats
- Veterinarians
- Individuals performing veterinary procedures on cats
- Cats
- Prohibition on performing partial digital amputation (declawing) of a cat unless it is determined not to be a medically unnecessary veterinary surgery by a veterinarian or supervised personnel.
- Requirement for veterinarians to determine if partial digital amputation is medically unnecessary.
- The Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent.
- The bill does not specify penalties for non-compliance with the prohibition on non-essential cat declawing.
- The bill does not specify the standards of practice for veterinarians in determining whether a surgery is medically unnecessary, other than referencing the Veterinarians Act.
Adds a new section (17.1) to prohibit non-essential cat declawing and amends subsection 49(2) to include a reference to the new section.
Source: Section 1 and Section 2
Is referenced in the context of determining standards of practice for veterinarians.
Source: Section 17.1 (1)
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
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Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced