Info about how wrong it is to declaw?

Here is a good one: http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/declaw.html

I can't put this any way other than this:
she is stupid.

I mean her ignorance astounds me. She KNOWS declawing is wrong and cruel and she's still doing it. I have NEVER had my legs punctured by a cat jumping in my lap, and that includes the outside ones who for obvious reasons have never nor will they ever have their claws clipped and have VERY sharp claws. Besides it's the back claws that do that anyways.

The cat doesn't bite because the owners clip her claws.

I think she is just too stupid to even think about owning anything. Like I said I just can't think of any better way to put it. She needs to learn a lot more before she even thinks about having a cat or any other living thing. She really sounds like she is into mutilating animals, there is no reason to clip a doberman's ears. I could never do that.

Trust me when I say I have had to carefully think about my words to make them repeatable. If I could say what I really thought it would involve a very long string of 4 letter words.

Taryn

Jacky, I gotta say, I just love the things you say, and can NOT WAIT to meet you I GOT to get this job in the wet coast!!! Cross your fingers for me!!!!

IMO that's too much... I think she just needs some more education... IMO this is her first cat, and is the typical naive first cat owner... who thinks this is the normal type of stuff you can do to a cat... She doesn't sound mean, or stupid to me. She just sound like she doesn't know any better.

My fear is, if she comes here, we pound her too hard, and she runs away. IMO she needs some guidance and education, and also most importantly, she needs alternatives... easy alternatives.

If she is still getting this kitty, what about telling her to adopt a kitty who is ALREADY declawed from a shelter, instead? There are sooo many declawed kitties in shelter who need a home....

this way she gets what she wants, saves a life at a shelter, PLUS doesn't mutilate another cat - everybody wins!

The one thing that came to mind instantly was "You think that cat bites NOW!!!" just wait. My Mom had her cat declawed....and has regretted it ever since. (Maybe because I tore her a new one) but also because she saw what it did to his personality. He is an indoor cat only, thankfully. He is also a really cool, friendly cat, but.............if he 'feels' threatened, he will turn and bite the hell out of you or anyone in his area. You really have to read Percy's body language. I can't tell you how sad it makes me to see him try to 'sharpen' his non-existent claws on every surface he can reach. My clawed boys don't do it as much as Percy does!

I agree with Carolina. If she thinks that any cat is going to "puncture" her legs when jumping on her lap, she is more misinformed than anything. I do find it sad that she KNOWS the de-clawing is horrible but still wants to do it. It's also concerning that she seems to think that NOT having him spray is the best reason to get him neutered. She sounds like a very ill-informed cat owner.

Maybe you could also let her know that she could very possibly have to deal with arthritis in the future, in addition to litterbox and safety issues. Let her know that most cats will not like having their claws clipped, but they learn to deal with it, and having their claws is essential to their being able to carry out their basic instincts and to simply being able to stretch their muscles.

I had to go through two "specialty" clippers before I realized Holland does just fine with human nail clippers, and she has gotten more patient with having it done as time has gone by.

This is one thing I will never understand - why is it so common for people to have their cats declawed but we never hear about this procedure being done on dogs?

Like I said I just couldn't come up with a better way to put it. Misinformed is what I meant. I didn't honestly think she is stupid. I mean I ask questions here and always get answers and some of them are for things that most people might or should know(so I'm likely guilty of asking 'stupid questions' or being worried over something 'stupid') but I would never consider myself stupid. Attitude and Nuts are only my second and third cats and Spaz was more just 'there', I can't really explain it but she was never sick, never had any issues beyond her issues with attacking people for no reason with her claws bad enough to cause you to need stitches. She ended up having to be declawed after a couple years trying to solve it, it was that or euthanasia at that point, plus I was young and since my now ex-husband who was my boyfriend at the time had always had cats so he dealt with most cat related things. I fed her, did her litter box until I got pregnant and bought her food but I never needed any help or needed to ask any real questions.

I'm a dog person and I am a large dog person, to me any dog under 50 lbs is an 'overgrown rat.' OK I really don't think that way but I've met more mean little dogs(I used to volunteer at an animal shelter when I was a teen) than I ever have big ones. I know at least 90% of the time the fault lies with the owner(just watch AFV and you'll know what I mean) but they are also already a lot more likely to snap or bite without their owners making it worse and not discouraging(and even in some cases encouraging) said behavior. My dad is deathly allergic to cats so I have no experience with them so I come here when I need a question answered.

I want to be an informed cat owner. She doesn't seem to want to be an informed owner and her knowing that declawing is cruel and wanted to do it anyways(not to mention having her dogs ears trimmed) just points to not caring about an animals pain and maybe immaturity or even cruelly that she doesn't seem to really care about the animals feelings and that fact that it will hurt the cat and cause problems down the road. Not to mention the cat already bites and declawing might make it worse. Spaz didn't bite before or after being declawed I think she thought she still had claws or we weren't threatening enough that she felt the need to defend herself. I mean like I said she needs more education before she takes on taking care of any living creature, it's almost like she doesn't care or even want the cat. I mean what is she going to do if the cat has some behavioral issues, which it just might(and sounds like it already does with the biting) she just sounds like she would be someone to just dump it at a shelter.

Nothing that you will say will change her mind and I honestly find it disgusting and sad especially since she knows it's cruel and painful and is still going to do it. When I took Attitude in to be spayed they had her down to also have a front declaw(I have zero idea why since declawing never came up in ANY conversation I ever had with them) and I told them in no uncertain words that they were not going to touch her claws for any reason(I clip them myself so they didn't even need to be trimmed.)

Like I said I couldn't figure out exactly how to convey what I thought so I used to word stupid because I couldn't think of the word misinformed, even though she is informed about the declawing and DOESN'T CARE, that to me is stupidity and is really disgusting. The fact that experienced cat owners are giving advice/information and she is choosing to ignore it is also in a way immature more than anything else or just straight up not caring about her pet's pain. I mean she's not really misinformed as much as she doesn't care but there is a definitely elements of her not being properly informed like the puncture her legs thing when they jump up(like I said that would involve the back legs anyways) and that the cat bites because her current owners clip her claws. The cat still has it's claws as defense it doesn't care that they are blunted they still use them as any cat does whether their claws are clipped or not.

Like I said she need to learn a lot more before she should be able to take care of any living thing. I just couldn't come up with misinformed so I used stupidity since that was the best way I could describe it but I never meant that she was actually stupid I just couldn't come up with a better word to describe it when I made my first post.

Taryn

I just wish that declawing would be illegal here in the US like it is in so many European countries. I honestly think that because it's so common people don't really think twice about it, and truly don't realize how cruel and crippling the procedure is. If I hadn't witnessed a kitten's declawing when I was in 7th grade I wouldn't have had any idea how horrible it is when I adopted Holland. I didn't find this site until I'd had her for several months. Which is not to say I would have EVER had her declawed, but I can understand that misinformed owners are led to believe that it's a "normal" procedure and that once the paws heal there won't be any more issues. We all know that's not the case, but the general public often doesn't realize it.

Krysta, the best you can do is give this woman links to this site and declawing sites and inform her of what is truly involved in a declawing. Once she realizes how horrific it is, if she still chooses to go through with the procedure, then I wonder how fit she is to be a cat owner. And as someone else suggested, there are plenty of already declawed cats waiting for adoption. I have friends who prefer declawed cats, but they adopt them from local shelters, they would NEVER have the procedure done themselves.

Doesn't sound like there is much you can do, if she's already aware of what declawing is but still wants to go ahead you probably can't talk her out of it. At least you tried, and I hope she does change her mind and kitty gets to keep his claws.

Wow that is scary. So glad it's not an issue over here, hope one day the US finally catches up with the rest of the world.

The world should defriend a person like that. Anti declaw is one of the only areas of new animal legislation I AM in favour of, and what she is planning on doing is especially traumatic to an adult cat, as opposed to a kitten.

I have nothing to say to her. Her reply disgusted me. Now i'm going to be thinking about that poor cat for the rest of the day!

can she adopt a declawed cat, from a shelter, instead?

Keep pestering her! People like that make me so mad!!! She doesn't deserve to have a cat!


What we can do to make declawing illegal here in the US and possibly in Canada too? Let's get a anti declawing movement started!!!!!

The receptionist told me that this is exactly why they always go over what the cat is having done when you check them in in the morning. Glad they did or I would have been horrified when I picked her up, not to mention I would have refused to pay for a procedure I didn't want done.

The thing is she KNOWS that they amputate her toes when they declaw and she still doesn't care. Like I said it's just disgusting and she sounds like the kind of person who would dump the cat at a shelter if it had any kind of issues. Like I also said, it almost seems like she doesn't even want the cat or care about it. It's almost like she's saying "it's just a cat." Well yeah technically Attitude and Nuts are 'just cats' but they are like my children and I sure wouldn't force my 7 year old son to have his fingers amputated at the first joint so he can't scratch me or anything else.

Like I said with Spaz I didn't have a choice(she was too young and too sweet most of the time when we weren't having to go to the ER or doctor's office to get stitched up yet again, and you don't kill family just because they have issues) and the vet made sure I knew every gory detail, even though I already knew what it involved and that is why I tried everything there was before having to resort to declawing her.

Taryn

Like I said, just keep pestering her. Tell her once she does that to the cat, it will change the cat's personality and how the cat feels towards her. Maybe that will help!

At least try it... Tell her she'll fall in love with the other kitty too And she can even name him Frodo too! And... she won't deal with the cost or with the post-op issues, and the risks, and vet visits.... Kitty will come ready to go!

If she was smart, she would adopt a cat that is ALREADY declawed. There are lots of them at shelters! Why get one that still has his claws if she just intends on doing it anyway? It would be easier and cheaper too just to get one who was already declawed.

I've now had 3 different kittens I've raised on my own, sure the thought crossed my mind, but I did some major research on the procedure and read every pro and con website I could find. There was this one, and I wish I would have bookmarked it, that showed drawn pictures of exactly where the cut is made and the little stub that's left there. To me it honestly appears like if we amputated our entire hand or foot and were left with nothing but a stub. How is that even remotely humane to do that to an animal that needs all of his moving parts just to live his everyday life? After that I swore I wouldn't ever do it. I'm learning how to clip their claws shorter at home and that's totally better than amputating what for us would be the entire hand!

In my family, no one has ever declawed any cats. I didn't even know about declawing until I got to college and adopted my first kitten. I signed a contract when I adopted him and swore to them I'd never do it. And I kept my word. I don't intend on ever putting any of my cats through that kind of torture! I love them far too much to cause them such unreasonable torture!

Argh! Don't get me started! I'll be here all night! My co-worker came to me today and said she had her 1 year old cat declawed and now he won't bury his poo in the litterbox. She said she totally regrets doing it and I just shook my head and asked her why she didn't ask me first cause I would have told her that would happen!

One of the receptionists at my vet's office told me a few weeks back that she'd just had her cat declawed. I was horrified!!! Part of me wants to never take Holland back to that clinic again, but it just didn't make sense because her doctor told me on our first visit that they were anti-declawing there, and all the vets she has seen there have been so loving and kind to my baby. It made me wonder if this woman had her cat declawed at a different place?

That is something I really don't understand, vets who are against the surgery but perform it anyway. If only they'd say no, if it weren't so readily available perhaps things would change over there.