Would you ever have your cat de-clawed?

NO. It’s cruel, painful and unnecessary. Civilized countries outlaw the procedure. Yeah. Not us.

No. My parents declawed our cat’s front and back claws – horrible. My cat still has hers and always will. If you don’t have the patience to teach them not to tear up your house, you shouldn’t have a cat.

NO.

Unthinkable.

I have 2 cats with their front paws declawed, when we had it done it was because our house had a lot of really expensive antique furniture that wasnt easily replaceable. It was also before they started making those cute kitty nail caps, otherwise I would have just used them. Their back paws are still pretty lethal though, I’ve got a few light scars from trying to get them handed to the mobile groomer when we get them shaved in early summer.

I did it with my first cat and regretted it as long as the cat lived. I’m not sure whether not having claws bothered her, but I always suspected it did, and I felt guilty for having deprived her of being able to scratch herself. I vowed never again to do it again, and so my next kitty got to keep his nails. I simply close my eyes and ears when he starts scratching the carpet or an afghan blanket.

By the way, if you love felines as much as I do, watching her/him limp around on bandaged feet after the surgery is a killer.

I sometimes wonder if people who do this actually understand what the procedure is.

“Declawing is a painful surgery, with a painful recovery period, that involves amputating the last joint of your cat’s “toes”. If we were to compare that surgery to humans, it would be like getting the last joint of your fingers removed. As you may imagine, this makes it extremely uncomfortable and painful for the cat to walk, since the last joint of her toes are missing. In fact, it can be so painful; she may resort to placing more of her weight on her hindquarters, causing her entire body to be off balance, and later may lead arthritis in hip bones and other joints.”

Source

NO. Anyone’s who willing to have a cat declawed should also have his/her fingers and thumbs removed to the top joint. In any rational country, declawing is illegal. In the U.S., veterinarians need to have enough ethics and lack of greed to refuse performing this barbaric procedure.

There’s a video on YouTube of a declaw surgery. Scared the hell out of me. It’s literally cutting their toes off at the knuckle.

Never. I’m trying to keep my mom from declawing one of her cats to save her furniture by coaching her in the use of Soft Paws, but if she can’t make it work and determines that the only choice for her household is the surgery, I will very likely agree to take the cat into my house in order to keep it from happening (if I can convince my fiancé that a third cat wouldn’t drive him insane).

I had a cat that was declawed before I adopted him. It was terribly agiainst nature. I would never do it.

Nope.

Had a shelter cat who had their front claws removed by a previous owner. That turned her into a biter, and made it difficult for her to get around; she missed many jumps because she could not grip with her front paws.

One common misconception is that declawing only removes the claw; it actually often removes the entire joint. Many fans of declawing don’t believe that, and think I am bullshitting when I ask them how they would handle having ⅓ of their fingers and toes amputated. There are newer methods that merely nick the tendon that extends/retracts the claw, but not all vets are up with the latest trends in veterinary medicine, so there is no guarantee that your cat won’t come home missing half it’s feet.

Talk about regretting a question….I feel sick.

NO, and I am sorry for judging but people who do, I just really don’t get it. I had some relatives over a day ago, they have their cat declawed. When I asked why they said “Oh because he ruins our expensive furniture.” I snapped and said you had no right, either throw the furniture out or don’t get a cat. You obviously can’t have both. It is absolutely wrong. I have scratches below my neck right now because my cat suddenly jumped off me as I was holding her. So what? These things happen. I’m certainly not going to go and get her declawed.

@cheebdragon, you get your cats shaved?

I was going to say what glacial said. But since she said it already I will just point.ΛΛ

How many of you have your cats spayed? That’s equally “barbaric” is it not? It’s still surgery, it’s still painfull, but it’s okay to make them go through that kind of pain to save you the convenience of not having constant litters of kittens or deal with a cat in heat, but having them declawed is wrong? That’s pretty hypocritical in my opinion, if you didn’t want a bunch of kittens or a howling cat in heat, you shouldn’t own a cat.

One of my cats is declawed, a decision I made before I knew there were other options. We didn’t declaw our younger cat because now I know better.

@cheebdragon I can see that, but it beats the alternative. Maybe you can find new homes for all of them or have the resources to take care of dozens of cats in a sanitary manner with adequate nutrition, but not everybody can. And how fair is it to the kittens? I see what you are saying, but I think you need to learn a little ecology since verpopulation is rather cruel as well. But better to be cruel by poor living conditions for the animals and their owners than a little surgery. After all, by your guidelines, nobody would deserve cats, and they would all wind up in shelters… until those overflowed… which could only be avoided by massive euthanizations. Yes, euthanization is less cruel than spaying.

Also note that spaying/neutering heals, but removal of toes doesn’t really. I had a vasectomy, but I can still walk a straight line, climb, grab things, and otherwise function in every non-reproductive way, so that really doesn’t compare anyways.

@cheebdragon Uh, no. By that logic, any surgery is inhumane. That’s simply not the case – only unnecessary surgery is cruel. Neutering/spaying saves the lives of all the cats and dogs sitting in shelters with no homes, half of which will be euthanized. It’s also true that spayed animals tend to be healthier than unspayed animals. Having a cat’s claws ripped off takes away their mode of protection. If that animal got out of the house accidentally, he’d have no way of protecting himself against other animals and could potentially get injured or even killed. The equivalent would be having your dog’s teeth extracted because it’s biting and tearing up furniture. Even that would heal faster and be less painful than declaw surgery.

And if my cat and puppy are any indication, spay surgery is a piece of cake. They both barely seemed to notice and were back to their normal selves almost immediately. My mom’s cat, on the other hand, spent at least a week biting and licking at her paws, walking (slowly) only when necessary, and shaking her feet every few steps because she was in pain. All because the precious furniture was more important. And considering all the problems that can occur after a cat is declawed makes the two not even comparable. I wonder what happens to those cats that end up unable to use the litter box after being declawed – I can’t imagine the person keeping the animal after that.

No.

Or, more graphically, no

@cheebdragon Our cat turned into a bad-assed Tom. He was constantly coming home all torn up. At one point one of the bites got so infected the side of his neck was swolen to the size of a tennis ball. We got him to the vet, got him healed AND neutered. When he came home he had a hole in the side of his neck the size of a tennis ball where the doc had cut away all of the dead tissue. It was an an inch deep. According to your logic, we should have just let him die. Painfully.
He doesn’t get in fights any more.

It is far more humane to get a dog or cat spayed than it is to put them through “child bearing” a couple of times a year. Not to mention what could happen to the kittens or puppies.

No, I just buy scratching posts and I spend time playing with them. The cats I have like to play tag and wrestle with my hand, and it seems that the more I pay attention to them the less they’ll scratch the furniture. I don’t leave them out.

My cat will scratch the furniture to get my attention. I guess he likes getting whacked with one of those stiff red heart wands they put in flower arrangements at valentines day!

Spaying or neutering is not done for the safety of the cat, and it’s certainly not the cats choice to have it done. It’s a necessary procedure done on a regular basis for the conveinience of human society, we don’t want an abundance of animals on the street so we kill them (hunting) or we remove their ability to reproduce. Declawing is just another form of convenience. My cats are 12 & 8 years old, they’ve never bit anyone, never shown any signs of aggression towards anyone, they don’t even fight with each other, and they do not go outside there is nothing for them to defend against so it’s not like they have been handicapped in any way. If they had made kitty caps at the time I bought the cats I would have tried those first but they didnt and I can’t say I’ve ever honestly regretted getting them declawed.

@cheebdragon Wrong.

Benefits of spaying/neutering cats and dogs

Benefits of declawing cats (there are none)

The risks of declaw surgery greatly outweigh the benefit (just one: saving precious furniture). Risks of spay/neuter surgery? If done correctly, none. While having a spayed animal is indeed more convenient, it’s far from the only purpose of the surgery. Declawing, however, is solely for convenience. If you want convenience, don’t have pets.

My puppy gets her nails clipped regularly, but they’re still pretty sharp. I have battle scars and a ruined shirt to prove it. However, I won’t be going to get her toes chopped off at the vet because of it. If it’s not okay for dogs, it’s not okay for cats either.

If a person does not have the time or patience to teach a cat not to scratch on furniture (and a cat tree may very well be enough), then perhaps that person shouldn’t have a cat. I hear hamsters are nice pets.

Many adult human females get themselves spayed because they have the same types of medical issues that a female cat or dog has, such as uterine infections and tumors. And you’re right, @cheebdragon. The cat certainly can’t tell you they’re having medical issues and can’t tell you what they want to have done about it. And having kittens and puppies unchecked, 2 or 3 times a year for 10, 12 years, is bound to bring on medical issues.

So it runs deeper than mere “convenience.” it’s encompasses logic and humanity. You have to wonder what becomes of those thousands of kittens and puppies when you let domestic animals breed unchecked. For the majority of them, I’d say the outlook isn’t good.

You know, neutering a male is an especially responsible thing to do because face it~ We don’t have to deal with the offspring of our male cats or dogs.

@cheebdragon Let’s set aside the question of whether it is mutilation or not and try a different tack. It’s awesome for you and your kitties that they have not experienced serious and/or lasting complications from the procedure. You got very lucky, because 25% – 50% do. Anecdotally, my female is in that latter group – after my parents got her declawed (I was ten, what did I know), she “chipmunked” for a year and has a limp to this day. For this reason alone, it seems to me to be irresponsible and ignorant to advocate declawing based on your cats’ experience.

@cheebdragon I don’t know of anyone who has had their cat declawed because the cat was “aggressive” toward humans or other animals. My goodness. If a cat is that aggressive, you’d have to pull all their teeth too. People get cats declawed to protect their precious furniture.

@Dutchess_III what in the flying fuck are you even talking about?

@livelaughlove21 you seem to assume that im a cruel lazy pet owner but thats not at all how it was. When I adopted my first cat I was doing independent study so with the exception of going to school 1 hour every Friday, I was home alone the rest of the time, I tried damn near every single product found at every fucking pet store within 10 miles of my house, no joke. The cat didnt care about water, you could spray her all day and she would just sit there for it, she refused to touch scratching posts, and nothing would advert her from going after the antique furniture or climbing up the curtains (she broke several curtain rods and lamps). Declawing was the only way to stop her, and while its easy I’m sure to say “well they shouldn’t have cats” at that point it’s a little too fucking late isn’t it? I guess you would prefer that I just suddenly kick her out of the house to live outside? Send her to the pound to get killed? I’d already had her about 1 year or more, she didnt know how to survive outside and she had never lived anywhere else, so you can think I’m a cruel person but you can honestly just go fuck yourself (not directed at anyone in general). I wasn’t lazy about it, and it wasnt just a snap decision to get her declawed, there was a lot of shit leading up to that choice.

Spaying & neutering is done for us and by us, if it weren’t for our benefit we wouldn’t even considering doing it, just like all the million wild animals we don’t do it to.

@cheebdragon I’m not going to repeat myself about spaying/neutering, because you’re intentionally ignoring anything anyone says about it. But I will say this:

“Declawing was the only way to stop her…”

Nope. You could have let another family have her. No-kill shelters accept and adopt out animals of all ages, and most have contracts that state you can’t declaw the animal. I won’t even comment on the idea that you got her declawed as an adult cat.

Hm…chop off her toes or let someone else have her? Toughie.

Oh, and the hostility isn’t necessary. Many people declaw their cats, but claiming it’s perfectly okay to do so (or that it’s the same thing as spaying) is ridiculous. My mom declawed her cat – she’s not a horrid person because if it, but she now knows how cruel of a practice it actually is. There’s a reason so many developed countries consider it illegal. There are much worse things people do to animals, but that doesn’t make it humane or acceptable. And the fact that your cat turned out okay doesn’t make it right either.

This isn’t a matter of opinion. I’m done arguing about a fact. Declawing is cruel, inhumane surgery. Period.

Peace.

@livelaughlove21 no kill shelter? Brilliant plan! yes, clearly that is so much better for a cat than to be declawed…do you really hate cats THAT much?

Tell yourself whatever you want to justify it but at the end of day it is still a completely true fact that spaying is mostly for the benefit for humans & society. Why isn’t it used to control other populations of animals? If you actually thought about it for a few minutes, you might realize that thousands of different kinds of animals reproduce numerous times throughout their life and yet they still seem to be perfectly fine and no one makes an issue of their offspring. Not even when it means they will end up a target for hunters to kill as a sport.

@cheebdragon You have to see the irony in linking a PETA web page when you’re here advocating declaw surgery. What does PETA say about that?

The no-kill shelters I’m familiar with foster pets out to families while they wait for room at the shelter. They are fed, given a lot of attention, and kept safe until they are adopted. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than amputating their toes. The quality of the shelter Is something you’d obviously check on before sending a pet there.

do you really hate cats THAT much?

Not nearly as much as you obviously do. It’s pretty easy to give a cat away to a home in which the people actually care about the animal enough to not mutilate them.

You tell yourself whatever you’d like to make yourself feel better for chopping off your cat’s toes, hun.

We’re talking about specific, individual animals @cheebdragon. My cat, Milo, for example. He would have been dead in a week from one of the bites he got fighting another cat if we hadn’t taken him to the vet. If we hadn’t gotten him neutered, he’d still be fighting and getting massive infections.
You are referring to entire species when you say “they” seem to be fine. Most of “them” don’t live to their full age potential, either, whereas many, many domestic cats and dogs do.

Can you imagine if we let all the domesticated cats and dogs, which humans bred into existence solely for human purposes, run wild and freeeee! All the rabies and distemper and sickness and dead cats and dogs everywhere…..

@cheebdragon I’ve had the same experience with no-kill shelters as @livelaughlove21, but your point is well taken. However, this is hardly the only way to rehome a pet – the more humane thing to do would have been to rehome the cats with friends, family, or trusted acquaintances or coworkers.