godzillatemple…damn hamsters! I don’t know why it posted 3x!
I think it is UNethical even with the ray!
I burning you cat claw!
And for heaven’s sake don’t get them mixed up! Circumsized cats can be mean!
We had our cat declawed at an early age. This is not something I would normally do, but we were moving on to housing overseas where the government provided the furniture. Not wishing to incur the cost of replacing shredded furniture for the government, we had the cat’s front claws removed.
Our cat never goes outside, so self defense is not an issue. She was fully capable of catching and killing geckos and the like without the claws, so her hunting instincts were not thwarted. She still does the ‘stretch’ thing on any object of her liking, but doesn’t damage it. She is loving and friendly. This seems to fly in the face of previous opinion, but maybe we just got lucky. Oh, she does tend to use her teeth more in play, which I understand is a byproduct of declawing.
I have yet to have someone explain to me why removing a cat’s claws is any worse for, or more cruel to, the cat than removing its testicles. Personally, I know which ones I’d rather keep.
The standard rejoinder to this is usually “it makes the cat defenceless.” Frankly, if your cat is ever in a position where it has to defend itself, you should reconsider owning a pet. the most humane thing to do to a cat is keep it inside.
Yes… the humane thing to do to an animal with strong hunting and territory-patrolling urges is to keep it inside. That way, it remains safely cooped up in a small, cozy place instead of allowed to explore in the big nasty outdoors.
I think the real question here is whether it’s ethical to start the same thread three times in the same forum?!? Isabelle, if no one responds after a day or two then the proper procedure is to bump the thread with a new entry, not start a new thread with the same title. But then, you’ve been around long enough (based on your post count) to know that already. Shame on you.
I adopted a sweet adult cat from a shelter.
She clawed everything in sight and all my attempts to get her to stop failed.
It was a simple case of me chosing:
a. take her back to the shelter
b. get her declawed
I know how few people are willing to adopt an adult cat from a shelter, and the high likelihood of her being euthanized because she wasn’t adopted in a certain (short) amount of time.
I got her declawed, she recovered very quickly, and we’ve lived together in harmony for the last 11 years.
It’s also unethical to call “shame” on someone *without actually reading the thread. *
I’m with Chefguy. I once had a cat to whom I was very close, but his clawing behavior was absolutely uncontrollable. We tried behavior modification (several kinds) and nothing worked. Declawing was our last resort, short of throwing him out. So we did it. Best thing we could have done for him. He had no complications, and he still tried to claw everything, but he couldn’t do any damage. I think he just liked the stimulation on his feet.
So in situations where it’s either declaw or euthanize (as it was with us. Who wants a cat who will destroy a whole closet full of clothes?), we’ll declaw. Of the many, many cats I have had, he is the only one we’ve had declawed.
And TVAA, just so you know, if any of my cats were let outside in this neighborhood, they’d be dead within the week, so don’t start down that road with me. All of my cats are well cared for and apparently happy. The two or three times one has managed to get out, he was screaming at the door to come in within ten minutes.
Declaw or euthanize seems like a false dichotomy to me.
There is always, no matter how sad you might get, the option of giving the cat a new home where it will be happy and not have its knuckles cut off.
I adopted a sweet adult cat from a shelter.
She clawed everything in sight and all my attempts to get her to stop failed.
It was a simple case of me chosing:
a. take her back to the shelter
b. get her declawed
I know how few people are willing to adopt an adult cat from a shelter, and the high likelihood of her being euthanized because she wasn’t adopted in a certain (short) amount of time.
I got her declawed, she recovered very quickly, and we’ve lived together in harmony for the last 11 years.
There are thousands of adult cats in shelters. Most are euthanized because there aren’t enough homes for them. If someone is willing to adopt one of these cats and give it a loving home, but will definitely get it declawed, do you think this is better for the animal than becoming one more body in the crematorium?
Well, you were the one posting the 50% complication rate, not me. And it was my father who was a vet, not my mother.
Yes, I can see that you got it from one study of veterinary student surgeons, not from licensed practitioners, and that all the other studies you cited would indicate that a 50% complication rate is unacceptable for a competent veterinarian. Therefore, your bald statement that 50% of all declawings result in complications was a bit of an exaggeration.
Regards,
Shodan
What’s the consensus on just nipping off the points yourself with a pair of nail clippers, provided of course that you don’t go too far back? And if you say it’s OK, would it be worthwhile?
Of those thousands of cats, many will have already been declawed.
And that’s why this particular argument disturbs me. Yes, I would rather someone kept or adopted a cat rather than kill it even if it meant declawing. But I’ve also seen how many cats get declawed and then abandoned at a shelter. What did the cat gain?
Declawing can cause behavioral problems. But even more, declawing can’t turn a bad cat owner into a good one.
If a person would choose a sofa over the cat, that person could later choose something else over the cat–something they can’t perform a surgery for.
Is declawing evidence that someone shouldn’t have a cat? Of course not! But I think it is evidence that there is something not quite right in the relationship. Sometimes, it’s the cat’s fault (as in cases where the cat is violent with other cats and causes harm). Other times, it’s just a person choosing the sofa.
Julie
Well, what did any animal gain who has ** anything** done and is then taken to a shelter?
What about the dog who got his tail bobbed and then was taken to a shelter?
Why the outcry about cat declawing and not about ear cropping?
Gol-danged ear-cropping, tail-bobbing sonsa-bitches!
Well, the thread is about declawing. I’m against ear cropping and tail docking as well. In fact, I find them even worse since they have no benefit at all.
If someone insists on having a declawed cat, they can get a declawed cat at the shelter. That is why claiming that “I’d take a cat from the shelter but I’d have to get it declawed” strikes me as a silly argument.
Julie
So if I take cat A home from a shelter and get it declawed, I’m probably saving it’s life. And declawed cat B gets euthanized in it’s place (have you read the statistics on the % of cats euthanized?).
If I take declawed cat B home from the shelter insted, than it gets a nice home and cat A gets euthanized instead.
Why is one situation great and the other one immoral?
In my case I chose the cat I did because I liked her.
If I’d have chosen a declawed cat instead, I would have gotten a cat I didn’t like as much (they aren’t just interchangable) and the cat which I now regard as mine would have been euthanized.
Why is this a preferable solution?