A ban on pet tattoos and piercings will soon be in place in New York, three years after legislation was introduced.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to sign a law in Albany to outlaw the practice, the New York Daily News said in an exclusive report.
"This is animal abuse, pure and simple,"
Cuomo said, according to the Daily News. "I'm proud to sign this common-sense legislation and outlaw these cruel and unacceptable practices once and for all in New York."
Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) introduced the bill in 2011 after seeing kittens on sale at a pet-grooming store that had pierced ears and had been made to look Gothic.
"Companion animals ... will no longer be subject to the selfish whims of their owners," Rosenthal said in June, when the legislation was passed
Animal lovers took offense in March 2014 after a Brooklyn tattoo artist Mistah Metro posted an Instagram photo of his brown and white dog with a heart-shaped tattoo and arrow that read "Alex and Mel," with the caption: "One of the many reasons my dog is cooler than your(s)! She had her spleen removed today, and the vet let me tattoo her while she was under."
Rosenthal told the paper that pets need to be protected.
"Humans should not apply their own fashion sense in permanent harm and injury to their animals," she said, according to the Daily News.
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