Let’s face it, cats like to scratch. Sometimes scratching a tree is not good enough…they also enjoy drapes, sofa’s and sometimes your favorite chair.
There are ways to curb your cat from bad scratching. Water guns, noise makers, commands, using sticky paper around the areas they claw at, offering cat posts and scratching pads, and much more.
Is it really ethical to declaw them? Declawing them is equivalent to cutting our fingers off at the first joint. It is not just a matter of cutting the nails. It is painful and must be done by someone with much expeirence.
Declawing cats has been banned in many cities. Just a few days ago it was overturned in Hollywood.
Well, the claim that “declawing [cats] is equivalent to cutting our fingers off at the first joint” is disputed by many, if not most, vets. The amount of pain suffered by cats undergoing the procedure is also subject to much debate, but it’s pretty clear from the literature that it’s minimal at this point.
I have no problems with it. I don’t see how an ethical argument can be made. Moral, perhaps.
It is certainly more ethical than kicking them everytime they mess up my nice carpet. 8)
Seriously though, if done at a young age, it is fairly safe and non-traumatic for the cat. Even if done at an older age they still fair pretty well, at least my wife’s have.
She does report though, as a Vet-Tech, that the procedure itself is pretty greusome, and the older the cat is the longer it takes for them to recover from it physically. If done by a good Vet though, it is no more traumatic or bloody than spaying or neutering.