allowing declawing kittens adopted from no kill

The shelter where I volunteer (brick and mortar but also many, many kittens in foster home - about 200 cats total at the moment) has a policy of allowing kittens to be declawed if under 6 months (though they don't do it there). They figure, I guess, that people are going to do what they are going to do, and they have a lot of cats to place. It's better than years in the shelter - maybe years in a cage if there are special feeding requirements or problems getting along with other cats. Adopters sign agreements to this policy on declawing, among other things.

Of course, no one can enforce this. But we try to educate adopters. I'm against declawing altogether. So, I try not to discuss it with potential adopters. I don't want to get thrown out. I agreed to follow the shelter's policies when I became a volunteer.

In the end, I think it is a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. But, I'm not happy about it.

Robin

A declawed kitty wandered onto my back porch and into my heart in 1998 and I love her dearly, BUT I think some of the phobias and such that she has had since she came into my life are a result of her being declawed. Since my first cat, I've adopted 2 other cats and they have claws. So, it would make me very upset if a rescue group knowingly adopted cats into a home where the owners saw no problem with having a cat declawed. That would definitely not sit well with me at all!

Just to play devil's advocate a bit, and kind of explain some possible reasons for declawing...

We had our first cat declawed, didn't know any better at the time. She suffered some nerve damage (or something) in one of her paws after it was done and as a result always had one very sensitive foot. I think that the sensitivity in her paw caused her to be less active and eventually she got very fat.

Our second cat we opted not to have declawed after what happend to Frisco (first cat). No matter what we tried, we could NOT get her to not scratch on furniture. It caused many fights over the years in regards to furniture and didn't allow us to get new furniture for some time simply because we knew she would destroy it. We actually even considered having her declawed when she was older, but didn't.

When my old roommate moved in and wanted a cat I agreed. I felt that because I have two dogs and she didn't have any pets I couldn't very well say no, you can't have one, but I can have as many as I want. I did tell her that if she was going to get a cat that it had to be speutered AND declawed because everything in the apartment is/was mine and I knew that she wouldn't take the time to train the cat not to scratch at/claw the furniture. Guess what, I was right, and although I have no more of her as a roommate I do have lots of pulled up threads in the carpet and the bottom of the couch is destroyed. She did have him neutered and declawed once he was old enough. Some will say that I could have taken the time to train him not to scratch on the carpet or couch myself, but in all honesty he was not my cat and not my responsibility. I also had enough on my plate in terms of training my own dogs and working.

We now have Stan, he has his claws however he rarely even tries to scratch at something so there isn't much worry right now and with his prognosis and our lack of new couch I'm not worried about teaching him to not scratch on something and am more focused on keeping him comfortable.

No no no no no no no.

If they want a declawed cat, tell them to adopt one already done. The shelters and streets are full of them.

My gosh when will this evil be banned in this country.

We actively discourage it, even have up a poster about it, but cats are lucky to be adopted at all, so we are not in any position to prohibit it.

Also, when a declawed cat comes in, it has a much better chance of being adopted and they are almost never put to sleep.

I'm sorry but I really disagree with this. Yes some people will do it anyway, but the point is to show the people WHY you should not be doing it and the consequences. Kittens will be kittens for a year and act stupid with their claws - no need to "encourage" the practice of declawing kitten to rehome them.

And chances are if the kitten is done, its very likely to end up in another shelter when it starts biting or peeing outside the litter box. It may keep its home for life if NOT declawed.

So I would have a big problem of the promotion of declawing kittens.

Another thing to consider for rescues (since this would be a rescue organization vs shelter) like this. Your foster homes that have spent months with these kittens and cats, getting them healthy and socialized, would be completely heartbroken in many cases to find out this happened to one of their cats - more so if that cat came back declawed with a problem related to having been declawed (peeing or aggression). You'd stand to lose fosters if they feel like they're being abused (the fosters, not the cats) by the rescue.

If I spent months on a kitten to have that happen I'd never deal with that rescue again.