New York State lawmakers voted Tuesday to ban cat declawing. If the bill is signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, it would make New York the first state to ban the practice that animal rights advocates say is cruel and unnecessary.

"Cat declawing is a horrific, yet often practiced surgery that leads to a lifetime of pain and discomfort for thousands of cats," Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal of Manhattan, who sponsored the bill and has fought for its passage since 2015, told NPR . "Today, though, every cat and kitten in New York state lands on its feet as we prepare to make New York the best state for cats to live in the United States."

The bill would outlaw a variety of declawing surgeries unless medically necessary for the cat, and impose an up to $1,000 fine on veterinarians who perform them, The New York Times reported. Cat declawing is not as simple as human nail removal because cat claws are attached at the bone, the Associated Press explained. It requires the veterinarian to cut through tendons and nerves and remove part of the toe bone. The practice is already banned in many European countries and Canadian provinces, as well as the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver. Representatives for Cuomo said he would review the bill before deciding to sign or not.

The bill was passed on New York's Animal Advocacy Day, which The New York Times described as "an annual and somewhat rare rite of Albany bipartisanship" in which "pet owners and their animal masters flood the Capitol, and Democrats and Republicans join forces to praise each other's legislation and dote on each other's pets."

The bill won bipartisan support. It passed the Senate 50 to 12 and the preliminary vote tally in the Assembly was 92 to 27, according to the Associated Press.

"Animals give us unconditional love," Republican State Senator James Tedisco, who brought his pet Corgi, Grace, to work Tuesday, told The New York Times. "I think that this is the most nonpartisan day we have in the New York State Legislature."