**
I’m aware of what declawing does to a feline I’m just in the camp that doesn’t think it is a problem.
I don’t think that being declawed diminishes the quality of life for a cat. Did W. Hollywood also make laws against spaying and neutering? Those seem like maiming practices to me as well. Or is it ok to maim the animals in your care when you want to?
Marc
My favorite color is brown. 
Why? A cat is more than just its claws, you know. It’s not like it’s getting a lobotomy.
I know I’ve been able to sleep at night having justified all the surgery I’ve done on people like that. I mean, avoid the brain and give them a little shelter… they should be greatful all I did was remove their claws!
I should have said specifically a declawed indoor cat. Declawing an outdoor cat is just plain cruel. I suppose once you make the decision to confine a cat to the house for the rest of its life, declawing it is not going to make much of a difference in its ability to suit your pet needs.
I have three cats (my girlfriend has this thing about rescuing small animals) and I would never think of declawing them. IMO it is cruel and shows a certain degree of callousness as well as selfishness on the part of the owner. Cats use their claws all the time, whether it be for gripping, balance, self-defense or shredding your furniture. It’s part of the package.
That said, I am well aware that many people out there do not agree with me. That’s fine, it’s just my opinion. It’s not like we can ask the cats themselves how they feel about it.
**
:rolleyes:
Apples and oranges. I suppose getting a vasectomy is a “maiming practice” as well? Not to mention that spaying and neutering help to keep the population from booming out of control. That’s the sort of situation that lends itself to far worse animal abuses than anything we are talking about here. Throwing around loaded terms like “maiming” and “mutilation” doesn’t really help either side of the debate.
It’s simple, would you like it if you had the tips of your fingers cut off? That’s enough for me, but not everyone sees it that way.
Just for the record, I hate the way they’ve gone about this in West Hollywood. The law doesn’t do anything, people will still be able to find places to get the procedure done. And if they really feel it’s necessary, then that is their perogative. A piece of “feel good - do nothing” legislation IMO. Not like I expected anything more.
If I am going to declaw a cat, then I’m taking him to Bed-Stuy gym so he can learn how to box.
I’m moderately opposed to declawing, but I disagree with this law. As has been mentioned, all you have to do is drive ten minutes and you’re outside of town. The law is useless. However, even if it wasn’t useless (say, a nationwide ban), I would still be opposed. Declawing is a pretty minor thing, in the grand scheme of things, for an indoor cat. And there are legitimate reasons for having it done. I’m considering it for one of my cats, for example, because he doesn’t clean himself too well, and regardless of how clean the litterbox is, he alwasy manages to step in his own crap, which gets under his claws, and infects them. To me, that’s a good enough reason. What if the vet disagrees? What if the vet say, “Tough noogies, just clean his paws everyday with Q-Tips”, and I get denied? Is the vet necessarily a better judge of what will make my cat’s life better than I am? I think we should leave the decision up to the people. Let the vet try to talk them out of it, but ultimately, it should be the owner’s decision. I don’t think that declawing is so horribly cruel that it should be outlawed.
I do have some questions, though, of those who know more on the matter. How does having a cat declawed affect the cat’s everyday activites? Is it kinda like me having my earlobes removed? Does it affect their balance? (My cat is a total clod anyway - I don’t think he could get clumsier.)
Jeff
It doesn’t, AFAIK. A significant number of owners, however, will report that declawing causes cats to avoid their kitty litter boxes. Probably because the cats find the litter granules to be irritating to their nubs.
Unbiased cite? Our cat has not problem with the litter box. It’s just crushed clay — same stuff they use to clean up oil spills.
Of course, in the grand scheme of things ElJeffe you are right, removing something like your earlobes probably won’t significantly affect your way of life. Suppose parents starting doing this to their children. What sort of outrage would you expect to hear?
No, cats are not people. But I have loved my pets as intensely as I’ve ever loved anyone or anything. My compassion is not limited by my estimation of another creature’s intelligence or physiological appearance. I think declawing is wrong because of the love I feel for them, and though I am glad enough people see fit to pass a law about it, I would never vote for such a law. Animals are there to do with as we please.
Lib, as our resident expert on logical fallacies, can you tell me what this is called? False dilemma, maybe? Excluded middle? I’m not sure, but I smell a rat.
What we would prefer, of course, is that you educate yourself about how to prevent the cat from scratching furniture, and take the cat.
From the Humane Society of the United States:
From the [American Humane Association:
From the [url=http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/scratch.htm]Denver Dumb Friends League](http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pa_care_issues_behavior_scratching[/url) (one of the best animal shelters in the nation):
Folks who work in animal welfare are pretty consistent in their message: the surgery is usually unnecessary, risks adverse behavior changes in the cat, and is usually painful for the cat.
This is different from sterilization: sterilization is (considering the 5 million animals euthanized each year in US shelters) very necessary, usually results in beneficial behavior changes in the animal (decreased aggression, decreased roaming, decreased spraying, etc.), has a rapid recovery time, and has a host of beneficial side-effects (decreased cancer risks, for example). It is foolish to compare declawing to sterilization.
I don’t know how I feel about the law. On the one hand, it’s obviously easy to circumvent it. On the other hand, the law might function as a moral statement by the town: it’s a way of broadcasting the message to folks that this is generally not a good idea. And some folks respect the law for its own sake, and won’t look to circumvent it.
On balance, I don’t think the law is a bad idea – assuming it makes exceptions for therapeutic declawing.
Daniel
Crap!
Click anywhere on the American Humane Assocation quote to go to the full article. The third and final cite was to the Denver Dumb Friends League. Sorry for the crappy coding.
Daniel
Of course if you make declawing illegal, back alley declawing establishments will spring up and people will still be able to get there cats declawed—at much greater risk to the cat. This issue will, of course, decisively divide the country into pro choice and pro cat camps. Pro cat extremists will protest and vandalize veterinarian establishments that offer this service and pro choice advocates will maintain that it is the right of the owner of the cat (who bears the burden of caring for the cat) to make this decision. 
Seriously, I’m personally not in favor of declawing (I like indoor/outdoor cats) but I don’t really care what other people want to do. I have also had cat scratch fever (given to me by a clawed cat) but bear no ill will to the cat. I have to admit that I have had two cats declawed, but only because the apartment complex I lived in required it. The cats were fine with it (once they figured out how to climb the cat stand without front claws). They never went outside but I did keep a careful eye on them. Their declawed status made it much easier to give them away to a good home when I got married and moved into a larger apartment that didn’t allow pets.
If a government made it illegal to declaw cats, cat ownership would decline.
There’s only a few sites I found with Google searches which are ambivalent about declawing, with the great majority of sites being strongly against it. Seems like those who care greatly about the issue are near-unanimous in recommending against the procedure, but most admit there’s no rigorously collected data supporting the expectation of subsequent behavioral problems.
Here’s a well balanced consideration of the ethics of declawing.
Here’s a relatively neutral page from “vetinfo.com”.
Here’s a relatively ambivalent page.
It depends on the cat. I could see declawing an overtly aggressive mean cat. Those cats are more likely to get the “river treatment” SPOOFE mentioned.
Declawing a poor kitten because you are too lazy to train it to scratch on a post is sad.
Having had five non-declawed cats over 15 years the destruction total goes: four dining room chairs ruined over about eight years by one particular cute little black Persian (replacement cost $300.00), rug damaged by black and white domestic shorthair (no cost), one office chair destroyed by Ragdoll and Chocolate Point Persian (replacement cost $100.00). Related costs: scratching posts (one huge $150.00, approx. three small $60.00), cat nip $50.00, one large Super Soaker water cannon $20.00)
Not having to disfigure and cripple poor little kitties, rendering them defenseless: PRICELESS
Actually, Beagle, it can be an especially bad idea to declaw an aggressive cat: they’ll sometimes start biting instead of scratching, and a cat bite is much more dangerous than a cat scratch. But otherwise, I agree with your post.
Daniel
Is laser declawing still a no-no in the anti-declawing world? The cat in this case does not have its digit removed. Just no more nails. Further, there is very little pain or recovery time for the cat from this procedure (if done during spaying/neutering you need only put the cat under once as well).
For those who maintain it is a ‘simple’ matter to train yoru cat are welcome to come ovwer to my place and have a shot at my cat. My wife and I read books and spent a good deal of time trying to train appropriate claw places. The cat did claw on her designated claw tree mroe often than not but she still had at furniture with gusto and she would cause fairly severe damage to that furniture. Fortunately we were poor and and crap furniture anyway at that point but we had plans for new furniture and that behavior could not be tolerated.
As for clipping the nails I tried that too and my cat nearly killed me. Even our vet, who is well practiced at clipping the nails, had a bad time with our cat. The cat fought so vehemently against this that you couldn’t hold her hard enough to keep her still without hurting her. I tried twice myself after being shown. First time she bit me and the second time she managed to lay four separate, fully bleeding scratches on me. Never again.
You might be getting the sense that our cat is somewhat of a bitch and you couldn’t be more right. She cuddles with me but she seems to hate every other living thing on the planet (including our other cat who she’s shared a house with for six years…still hisses at the other cat if it gets within three feet of her). As a result this cat likely could never be adopted by anyone else.
Our choices were declawing or the pound (we couldn’t make up our mind about a no-kill shelter and if she’d be ok there). She no longer has her front claws and for the life of me seems no different from before or after. FWIW she is strictly an indoor cat. Fortunately the few times she made a dash for the door she got only a few feet out the door, decided the big world scared her and ran back in. She will never ever be roaming outside short of a major mistake on our part.
It’s rather hard to find a non-biased source on the web about anything let along about hot topics like declawing, but here’s the best I could to.
http://www.api4animals.org/doc.asp?ID=555
from the link:
Non-laser declawing doesn’t remove the digit, only the tip of the digit (i.e. first knuckle on up). The lasar procedure does the same thing.