Cal. BPC § 4826.8

This is the official text of Cal. BPC § 4826.8, part of California’s Business and Professions Code — regulates business practices and professional/occupational licensing - contractors, doctors, cosmetologists, real estate agents, and dozens of other licensed professions.

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Official statutory text

(a) An onychectomy, tendonectomy, surgical claw removal, or declaw on any feline or any procedure to otherwise alter a feline’s toes, claws, or paws to prevent or impair the normal function of the feline’s toes, claws, or paws shall be performed solely for a therapeutic purpose.

(b) For purposes of this section, “therapeutic purpose” means a medically necessary procedure to address an existing or recurring infection, disease, injury, or abnormal condition in the claws, nail bed, or toe bone, which jeopardizes the feline’s health. “Therapeutic purpose” does not include a procedure performed for a cosmetic or aesthetic purpose or to make the feline more convenient to keep or handle.

(c) This section shall not prohibit a veterinarian from nail trimming or applying nonsurgical scratching mitigation solutions, such as the application of a device to the tip of a claw.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.