Ozzy Osbourne partners with Peta to encourage people to stop declawing cats

Ozzy Osbourne has joined forces with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) for a new campaign targeted at cat owners who have the claws removed from their pets.

In a statement, the 71-year-old rocker said: "Amputating a cat's toes is twisted and wrong. If your couch is more important to you than your cat's health and happiness, you don't deserve to have an animal! Get cats a scratching post - don't mutilate them for life."

The Black Sabbath frontman also stars in a poster for the animal rights charity, which sees his fingers edited to look as though they've been cut off, whilst fake blood pours down his hands.

Text on the poster reads: "Never declaw a cat. It's an amputation, not a manicure."

Declawing has been banned or severely restricted in countries including the UK, Australia, and Japan, as well as in the state of New York.

But Ozzy and Peta want to see the procedure banned across the US.

In their own statement, Peta explained: "While misinformed guardians may think it's nothing more than a manicure, declawing is actually a serious surgery involving 10 separate, painful amputations. Without their claws as a first line of defence, cats feel so insecure that they tend to bite more often as a means of self-protection. And even house-trained cats may urinate and defecate outside the litter box in an attempt to mark their territory when their claws have been taken from them."

Ozzy's campaign with Peta comes after he recently revealed he is battling Parkinson's disease, after going through a year of "hell" with various ailments, including pneumonia.

He said: "This last year has been hell for me. I've had surgery on my neck. I've announced to the world that I've got Parkinson's. It's been one rock 'n' roll year for me."