New York is the first state in the country to outlaw the practice of declawing cats, a surgery that animal-rights advocates deem inhumane and unnecessary. Declawing a cat, also known as onychectomy, has been banned in most European countries, along with some Canadian provinces and U.S. cities including Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

"Cats of New York: Show me your claws,"Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said earlier this summer. She advocated for the anti-declawing bill for five years before it was signed into law on Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.