ROANOKE, Va. – People across the Commonwealth will soon be impacted by new laws starting Monday.
Among those impacted are cat owners. A new law makes it illegal to declaw your cat, except for therapeutic purposes, like the cat or owner’s health.
Roanoke Valley SPCA Marketing and Communications Director Julie Rickmond said the group supports the new restriction.
“It’s the bone, you’re cutting out the bone, so that’s unfortunate for the cats,” Rickmond said. “It causes a lot of issues. Sometimes later in life or immediately afterwards it can be very painful.”
Another law makes it legal for people to claim road kill. So, if you hit a deer, bear, turkey or elk with your car, you can take it home with you.
Another change is happening on the roads. If you drive an unregistered farm vehicle on public roads you now have to register it through the DMV.
“I noticed a big spike in it during COVID,” one citizen said. “You’d see like Jeep Cherokees and cars and things like that using the farm use tags, so I think it ended up being abused.”
Meanwhile, there are changes to gun laws. One bans auto-sears. Devices used to convert semi-automatic firearms to shoot more than one shot without reloading manually.
The other makes it a felony for a guardian to let their child get access to a gun if they found out or know their kid poses a threat to themselves or others.
Days ago, Governor Glenn Youngkin and First Lady of Virginia Suzanne Youngkin stopped at the Salem YMCA to announce a chance affecting Virginians with disabilities.
The duration to contract services for an intellectually disabled Virginian has been extended to 365 days.
“They were not getting the right help, at the right time, in the right ways, with the right funding,” Suzanne Youngkin said. “It just was broken.”
That’s just a few of the 824 bills that will become law. For a full list of new laws, click here.