It's never a good sign when the court of appeal launches a published opinion by comparing your opponent's conduct with Mahatma Gandhi's.
On Friday, a divided Second District Court of Appeal upheld the city of West Hollywood's ordinance outlawing the declawing of animals within city limits. The California Veterinary Medical Association had persuaded a trial judge that the ordinance was pre-empted by state law, but West Hollywood — backed by Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, with amicus support from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera — prevailed before the appellate court.
"Echoing Gandhi's teaching that a society's moral progress is best judged by its treatment of animals, the City of West Hollywood has banned as cruel and inhumane the practice of animal declawing unless necessary for a therapeutic purpose, "Justice Dennis Perluss wrote in California Veterinary Medical Association v. City of West Hollywood, 97 C.D.O.S. 7348. You can read the rest of the court's reasoning here, though you really don't need to.
Justice Fred Woods dissented, drawing his spiritual guidance from the Department of Consumer Affairs, which had previously found the ordinance lacking.
— Scott Graham
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