I think this was terrible... but then, I think the same of cosmetic tail docking and ear cropping, and those remain legal. I wonder if the SCPA has any real legal leg to stand on in this case.

It does bring about a bigger issue - where is the line drawn. Makes me think of declawing, and what Tatterdemalian brought up.

One interesting point is that while tail-docking, ear-cropping, and declawing* are general one-time painful, these piercings have the ability to cause a greater amount of long-term harm just due to normal activities pets engage in. Cats wrestling could get the piercings caught on something (even another cat) and rip them out, infection is always bothersome due to them digging at the piercings (especially based on how they scratch), and so on.

While this is a dog thing, our local park is now prohibiting metal-chain collars as some dogs that were wrestling (like dogs are wont to do) managed to get their teeth caught and it ended up causing a pretty decent amount of damage to the other dog.

As such, I think the SPCA has a pretty decent case.

*Yes - I know that declawing is very painful to the cat and if it's done too late can cause permanent tenderness in the pads. No I won't have it done to a cat nor would I do anything but try to dissuade others from doing so. However, in general, I'm not sure there's nearly as much potential for problems.

Declawing causes : nerve damage, bone sensitivity, chronic phantom pain and much more!
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If done incorrectly you can lose mobility in your legs from the touniquet being on too long. If the joint is not disarticulated fully- the bone will grow out into projections and the procedure needs to be done again to remove the rest of the bone.

And yes, it does cause aggression problem and litter behavioral problems. We see this A LOT in our practice.

We do not perform them. You want a cat, you own a cat, you deal with what they come with.

End story.

Again, there's the difference between "we refuse to do it" and "we won't let anyone else do it." In the long term, though, the former seems more effective at changing human behavior than the latter. Most effective would be harnessing the same psychological forces Lincoln did when he gave his Gettysburg Address, but nobody really knows how he did that, just that being right, by itself, is simply insufficient to accomplish what he did.