Article on Declawing

I wish they said why the Soft Paws didn't work.

^Probably found them to be too much work to put on. Or didn't put them on correctly.

The calico in the picture looks rather cute in her pink and purple soft paws.

It makes me laugh a little that she said "these are my children". You don't see parents lopping off fingers when their kids color on the walls.

Thank you for posting that article!

I spent a few hours last night researching vet journals about de-clawing because I wanted to find something concrete to show a friend of mine (a friend who needs urgent convincing to not declaw their cat, and will probably only listen to sound scientific arguments). I had a *really* hard time and I'm against de-clawing. Sure, I found LOTS of anti-declaw websites that made the same claims/arguments, but the info to back them up was lacking. I am not for de-clawing, but I think there are illogical arguments that people against de-clawing put forward. I'm not saying de-clawing is good, but that de-clawing opponents need a stronger factual basis to support their (our) argument.

(if anyone has a decent study done that would help me, please PM me! All the ones I'm finding have flaws in methodology. OR there isn't a study at all, it's arguments like "oh it's illegal in other countries"...which to me is not a compelling argument against de-clawing, though it is not something to ignore). There are studies that say that cats who are de-clawed have higher surrender rates to shelters.....well *of course*, I mean, the person who is more likely to de-claw a cat is also the person who is more likely to give up a cat when they move or a baby shows up.

I like that this MSN article points out the conflicting findings in studies. For every study I found with behavioral changes after de-clawing, none said anything about that being a controlled study. Behavior can change for many reasons, and even the changes that study found were not large. Same thing with litter box usage. I also found a few studies where there wasn't any change in behavior.

My #1 reason for being against de-clawing is that it is done without any thought by owners, it's a serious procedure and is made to sound like no big deal.

Oh wow, did NOT mean to ramble on like that. Again, thank you for posting and if anyone can help me in my search for actual scientific studies on de-clawing with decent methodology, I'd appreciate it!!!

I have looked also and not found anything.

Yup. Us (and I am one) anti-declaw types need to remember this. This is one of the reasons I think a law is the only way to end declawing. The primary reason declawing shouldn't be done, but the reason that isn't going to be enough for most who want to declaw, is that it is just wrong to so drastically surgically alter an animal to fit our needs. It's just wrong.

I've heard that some cats don't tolerate them.

so true!

Do you happen to have the citation for the study? I would love to read it and show it to my friend.

[quote=meow meow;2206838]In the study, Dr. Dodman noted that what an owner considered a "success", the researchers considered a failure (for instance post-operative pain following surgery).[/QUOTE

Whoa! Why would post-operative pain be enough to warrant a "failure" label? Unless you mean long term pain, not just short term pain during healing?

I'd love to see this study also.

BTW - Congrats on going the extra mile to convince DH not to declaw!

There is a long thread in the Behavior forum with many links to studies, starting somewhere in the middle of the thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=155501

Laurie

Here's a link to my specific post where there are actual references to studies:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...6&postcount=82

Laurie

Oops! I should have thought to check the threads right here.