It still surprising in the 21st Century, that many otherwise intelligent and enlightened people do not comprehend what is meant by "declawing" a cat, and therefore are incapable of making an
informed decision about this surgery.
I received an email a couple of days before from someone who had taken her cat to her local "humane" society to have him declawed. She had no idea what the surgery entailed, in advance. She wrote:
"I was unaware of the procedure they used and shocked and horrified that they cut off my cats toes. He has nerve damage that may take up to 6 months to heal. I cry every time I look at him to think I could be so stupid as to take my animal to the Humane Society and let them do this. I was just stupid as to the way it was done. My question is why are they not telling people the truth about this practice, they don't really give you much information and unfortunately I got smart a little too late. I understand there is another procedure that is less stressful to the cat and doesn't cut their toes off. I don't understand why the 'HUMANE' Society would use this method and why they don't tell pet owners what they are doing and they have options that are much more HUMANE for the cat. I will feel guilty and upset about this forever and want to know who I can complain to and how I can help to make it mandatory to tell owners their procedure FIRST."
Veterinarians "Cross-Selling" Services?
A much enlightened Cats Forum member was appalled when she recently called to make an appointment to neuter a young male cat she had rescued. "Would you like to have him declawed at the same time?" she was asked. When she replied in the negative, the question was, "Oh, is he an outside cat," (the assumption being that only outdoor cats need their claws.
While many veterinarians today refuse outright to perform this mutilating surgery, others appear to be "cross-selling" it, the idea being that as long as the cat has to be aenesthetized for one surgery, the other might as well be performed simultaneously, since the owner, no doubt, will want it done anyway, eventually.
Other Veterinary Professionals Abhor Declawing Dr.Nicholas Dodman, a prominent veterinary behaviorist, writes in The Cat Who Cried for Help:
"Unlike routine recovery, including recovery from neutering surgeries, which are fairly peaceful, declawing surgery results in cats bouncing off the walls of the recovery cage because of excruciating pain. Cats that are more stoic huddle in the corner of the recovery cage, immobilized in a state of helplessness, presumably by the overwhelming pain. Declawing fits the dictionary definition of mutilation to a tee. Words such as deform, disfigure, disjont, and dismember all apply to this surgery. Partial digital amputation is so horrible that it has been employed for torture of prisoners of war, and in veterinary medicine, the clinical procedure serves as a model of severe pain for testing the efficacy of analgesic drugs.. Even though analgesic drugs can be used postoperatively, they rarely are, and their effects are incomplete and transient anyway, so sooner or later the pain will emerge."
AVAR (Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights) says:
"The cat is treated as if he or she is an inanimate object who can be modified, even to the point of surgical mutilation, to suit a person's perception of what a cat should be. It would seem more ethical and humane to accept that claws and scratching are inherent feline attributes, and to adjust one's life accordingly if a cat is desired as a companion. If this is unacceptable, then perhaps a different companion would be in order.--- Only in extreme circumstances should surgical measures such as declawing or tendon cutting be considered. What those circumstances might be are beyond the scope of this brochure, but it must be emphasized that these should be considered only a last resort after having tried all other options for resolution and only if the person will not then accept the cat on her or his terms."
Assuming you've read this far and that you agree that declawing is an inhumane, unnatural, and mutilating procedure with no direct benefit to the cat, what can be done by a mere consumer and cat lover? Plenty, as we'll discuss in the next sections.
Next > A Proposed Solution
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