Declawing your cats?

I know this is unrelated but - in some ways - mirrors your story. The Dog's Trust have done a survey which gives out the most ridiculous excuses people have given for bringing BACK a dog they had bought from the Trust. One said the dog 'didn't go with my new furniture, the colours clash.' Another said, 'the dog SMELLS LIKE A DOG!' As someone on Facebook (this was on telly, I'm not on it) pointed out, 'What's the dog supposed to smell like, Chanel No.5?' This is why we love animals more than people, right? They have more sense and are far more intelligent!!

Very good advice. I always wonder what some people are thinking when they say they love animals and yet support such organizations like PETA. I think most are just uneducated on the subject, as with declawing. What if the cat, who is an indoor cat, gets out. How will it defend itself without any claws.

my mom always trimmed her cats nails because by having the vet doing it always cost too much. clearly this lady doesn't want to or cannot be bothered to do this every month (or whatever) and if she doesn't want to trim the cats nails then maybe she shouldn't have a cat.

I'd be really tempted to go over to her house, put crampons on my boots and jump all over her furniture. If you love your furniture so much, don't get a cat. It's pretty simple, really... though obviously it's too much for someone as stupid as she is to understand. What next? Get a divorce because your partner doesn't like toast?

Yes, declawing cats is abusive. They have no way to protect themselves from predators if they happen to get outside. I think it can still be done here. I think most people don't realize that declawing is actually digit amputations. If a person refers her cat as a piecmce if Shiit then she shouldn't have the cat in the first place. I feel so sorry for any cat that has to endure this terrible and needless operation.

How appalling! I would have had to try really hard to keep from slapping that woman's face into next week. Out of all the cats I've had in the past 22 years only 1 scratched the furniture. I have scratchers of every conceivable kind all over the house. But she preferred the furniture. It was brand new. I tried everything to stop her but while we were working she did a good job on the couch. I used herbals and anything else I could buy but it didn't stop her. I did find a product that was 2 inch wide strips of double sided sticky tape. I ordered it from a catalog. That worked until I ran out and just gave up. I love my cats. I like my furniture. It was a beautiful living room set but a couch is replaceable, my cat was not. She wrecked the front end of the couch. I don't care what anybody thinks. My house is set up for my cats and that's the way it is. People like her shouldn't even be allowed near any animal. What a truly evil person she is. Declawing is torture, in my mind. I think it's great the most vets where you are don't do it. I think here they mostly do. It's all about the $$. It should be made against the law everywhere.

AMEN! I suggest you send a copy of your post to your local community newspaper. Educate a few more people.

Declawing is the most inhumane, torturous, painful, and sickening thing you can do to a cat!!! First, you are actually amputating a portion of the bone in the paw. This is a great opportunity for the cat to develop arthritis. Not only that but the paws will always hurt from the procedure and that pain will NEVER go away. It leaves your cat unprotected when it is outside, plus if they need to escape from a predator by climbing a tree, you have taken away that advantage. Also, during the healing process it is possible for the cat to develop an infection from using the litter box, even if their paws are wrapped in bandages. The woman who was more concerned about the furniture than the living entity that is willing to unconditionally love that twit, should find a more loving and understanding home for the cat! She doesn't deserve to own a cat, dog, or even a slug! It takes a bit of training to keep the cats from clawing the furniture, but it can be done. I have four cats and they don't touch the furniture to clean or sharpen their claws. They have a scratching post and they ALL use it. Also, there is a product that is a covering for their claws that you glue on like fake nails. They are kind of expensive, but they will protect the furniture. If you look around the area that the cat uses as a scratching area, you will often find shards of the nails laying around. This is how they keep their claws clean, sharp, and in human words, manicured. They also have scent glands in their toes that emit a secretion that helps mark their territory. I often wonder how these people would react if they were forced to go through the same type surgery...to have their nails removed at the bone and even have a portion of the bone removed too. Would they go through the pain, heartache, and bewilderment? Yes, the bewilderment, wondering "WHY" the people you love and trust have decided to take you to a strange place and allow strange people in a horrible smelling place to do something so horrible and painful. This is a creature who have given their owner their unconditional love and promised to themselves to protect, trust, and even work at keeping the vermin out of the house that they live in. The vets in my area no longer declaw cats. They all state that it is a cruel, barbaric, unnecessary, and painful surgery that leaves the animal totally unprotected. As for the people who are even considering doing such a surgery to their cat, they need to be taken in and have it done to them first and then see if they still want to do it to the cat. Of course I still think that people who even give a passing thought to having a declawing done to their cat should have the cat removed and placed in a loving, patient, understanding, and tolerant home that accepts ALL creatures as they are. Wow, sorry I got so wound up, but mutilation of such a sweet in-noxious creature is criminal and inhumane to say the least! I would love to witch slap the people to mars when they come up with the idea!!!

Hi 911Ricki, I have two cats and I would not consider getting them declawed. I once saw a cat that had been declawed and there was blood all over her paws and she looked like she had suffered terribly. Blessings.

I understand people don't want their furniture destroyed. My door frames look terrible. For the most part my cats do use the scratching posts we have. But as for declawing cats, well, I may not care for it, but it's the people that have the procedure done and then let their cats outside that really bothers me. My husband had a dog growing up that had never, ever, had issues with cats. Their neighbor always had cats outside and there was no fence and there was no issue. Rebel didn't bother anyone nor their pets. Most of the neighbors would feed him. Not like he wasn't being fed at home, everyone loved him. Someone new moved into the neighborhood with a declawed cat. An outside cat. Some neighborhood dogs got a hold of the cat and killed it. I'm sorry to hear that. I have cats also and love them very much, just I have dogs and love them very much. The owner of the cat claimed Rebel was one of the 3 dogs he saw. The owners of the dogs were taken to court. Rebel still lived with my husbands family so my father in law had to go to court. He fought it and they made him put Rebel down. None of the others were made to do so. Again, I'm sorry about that cat. But my father in law won't even take a chance to get close to caring about another animal. And I don't agree with putting a cat in such a predicament in the first place. My cats don't scratch up the things I care about. They don't touch the totem pole. They don't scratch my furniture. The door frame, whoopee, it's easy to replace. I agree with you, if you don't have the time and patience, don't get the responsibility.

I was never a cat owner until a couple years ago and when we got our first cat, I actually did want to have him declawed, until my husband explained to me that it is a form of abuse because it takes away a part of a cat's natural predatory skills. So I've not even thought about it since then. We currently have three cats and none of them are declawed and I also have to say that they've not scratched up our furniture at all. Now that I've been a cat owner for a while, I couldn't imagine hurting my cat by declawing them.

I think cat is not for her. Maybe a dog? Its really difficult to judge people. People have different attitude. Maybe she wants to have a pet cat, but she also does not want to damage her furniture. If that is the case, maybe a dog will do good for her-- but what shall we do? She likes cat, isn't it? She has different perspective about cats.

If the procedure was called what it really was (like digit amputation for claw removal) instead of just "declaw" that would help. Most people really do not know that it is the same thing as if you were to lop all of your fingertips off so that you wouldn't have to clip your nails! If cats are raised to have their nails trimmed regularly from when they are kittens, most of them do not mind. It only takes a minute to do!

I would not have the cat inside the house.. And Id never declaw a cats, to me its their way to be able to defend themselfs. Have a great day there. Feeling like xmas yet??

I would never declaw my cats but then again their pretty good. They have 2 scratching posts and a living room chair that is theirs until I throw it out. They can tear it apart and it's ok. I think declawing is just wrong and that's just my opinion and don't want to be jumped on because of it. Scratching is what cats do and if you don't have a scratching post or something that's theirs to scratch on then that's your problem.

I don't see why people would want to declaw their pets anyways. They were born with nails just like we are and you don't see us humans having our nails declawed. But like you said they should just shorten their nails and get a scratching post, that's what we did when we had cats and it worked. One cat was really bad though and was hard to train not to scratch the couch but other than that we had no issues.

I personally think declawing a cat is cruel! It's really like lopping part of someone's finger off. A cat also has to be a truly 100% all the time indoor cat to be declawed - if it gets out or goes out often it has last a huge mechanism of natural defense. I agree with you if one takes the time to trim nails and give something to use rather than furniture (spraying catnip where you'd prefer them to use works well to encourage that location) then you dont have a problem.

Really? maybe we should declaw some humans nails as well see how they feel I have 2 cats and they rarely scratch the furniture they play out in the court yard and have toys inside and they are happy cats I pay a lot of attention to them. I just don't understand people if they care about their furniture they should not have a cat! next thing we will hear would be about shaving the cat because they leave hair on the furniture? really.

It is the same way here most vets and shelters will not declaw your cats nails. I agree that I think that it is inhumane to do that to animal. I feel sorry for the cats who actually have this procedure done. Imagine how hurtful that must be that their claws are being pulled out. I think you are right as well. It is ashame that people care more about their furniture then they care about an animal. If they would just think for a second, hello, just keep their nails trimmed and you won't have the problem of them scratching up their furniture. Teach them not to scratch your furniture, show them were the appropriate place to scratch is. That's all there is too it. Because declawing the cat is not going to solve anything. That is a lot of money to get a cat declawed, isn't it much less just to get their nails trimmed.

God made animals to have claws for a reason. Kind of like animals have a voice box, it's there for a reason. People who get "pets" have no clue that animals need their claws and voice boxes. Claws are vital for survival as well as a voice box is for letting their owner know something is wrong,whether it be some one is invading their territory or they may be hungry or need water or just need attention.