(WHTM) — An animal rights activist at the State Capitol on Tuesday is a cat.

Re-paw-sentative Ravi Benham comes to work with Representative Jessica Benham.
Today was his 9th birthday party and a discussion on banning declawing.

Lawmakers were invited for cake after the first break from the session. The declawing ban legislation has been introduced in the past. Ravi is hoping it gets a vote in the committee this session.

“I think a lot of people think that cat-declawing is just like clipping human nails, but it’s much more significant than that,” said Rep. Benham (D-Allegheny County). “It removes the entire first joint, a cat’s finger, and you can imagine what that would feel like for you as a human being, and that can cause even more behavioral issues with the cat.”

Ravi prefers to scratch his scratching posts, but he wants everyone to know that there are other solutions besides taking a cat’s claws away.