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I had not heard this before about a diabetes/declaw connection, and thanks for posting this. Declawing is a hot-button issue for me. I get angry just thinking about it, and am forcing myself not to go on a rant about it here. Short of a solid ban in all 50 states, the only other way I see to stop it is educating the public on what declawing really does to a cat. Articles and research like this would help to accomplish that if widespread enough. The problem is changing so many peoples' minds about something like this can take decades, and during that time many thousands of cats will suffer for the sake of someone's furniture.
I had not heard this before about a diabetes/declaw connection, and thanks for posting this. Declawing is a hot-button issue for me. I get angry just thinking about it, and am forcing myself not to go on a rant about it here. Short of a solid ban in all 50 states, the only other way I see to stop it is educating the public on what declawing really does to a cat. Articles and research like this would help to accomplish that if widespread enough. The problem is changing so many peoples' minds about something like this can take decades, and during that time many thousands of cats will suffer for the sake of someone's furniture.
It is illegal in 8 cities so far in the USA, all in California.
Did you know there is a huge movement to ban this evil procedure? There is a documentary now. It is making the rounds of the bigger US cities, you can bring it to your town find out how here:
Really interesting article. I'm with catdad7x, I get really angry about declawing. My shelter years really exposed me to so many animals in pain because of things like this. I wouldn't declaw Josie and Napoleon in a million years. Miseducation is just such a big part of it! My best friend refuses to declaw her new baby cat because of the info I gave her. My f-MIL actually cried when I explained what declawing meant because her two boy kitties were declawed very young and she just didn't know better. I taught a summer camp at the shelter for a couple years and I made it my mission for the kids to understand what declawing meant and some of those youngsters were incredibly adamant explaining what they learned to their parents. I just wish there were more ways to spread it around because people who love animals wouldn't do it if they knew. And, the people who still would, for the sake of their furniture, shouldn't be allowed to have animals in the first place.
It is illegal in 8 cities so far in the USA, all in California.
Did you know there is a huge movement to ban this evil procedure? There is a documentary now. It is making the rounds of the bigger US cities, you can bring it to your town find out how here:
Glad to hear that. It's a good start and I hope it catches on and spreads quickly. I hope it's true what they say... what happens in California, the rest of the country will follow (or words to that effect).
Personally, I would hope that declawing would be banned in every state eventually.
When both of my first two adopted cats were very young - both had been declawed prior to me adopting them. I had taken them in to the vet for a routine yearly physical exam. I was just starting grad school in Fargo, ND. While the vet tech had taken both of the cats to the back room to weigh them I was sitting in the waiting room. From out of nowhere I heard this terrible wailing that was so loud that the full waiting room of about 25 ppl all heard it. Everyone began to look at each other quite literally saying that someone was being murdered in the back exam rooms and saying they hoped it wasn't their pet. The wailing went on for about 5 mins until I finally went up to the main desk and asked wth was going on back there.
Turned out it was my Boostie screaming her head off. They had gone to touch her paws - and she went beserk out of sheer terror. The vet surmised that she had some memories of getting declawed, had severe nerve damage from the procedure, and was extremely traumatized. They brought me back to the exam room to help her calm down. When they examined her paws she was actually missing large amounts of her toe pads. She was only declawed on her front paws thank goodness.
Ignorant me, I really hadn't noticed. I assumed the 'pink' areas on her paw bottoms were where she just didn't have pigment. Turned out no, when whoever removed her claws, part of her pads came along with them. She also had this tendency to flick her paw about every two mins and wince. The vet assumed this was due to residual pain.
wahhhhhh . Poor Bootsie. This was when she was probably only about two years old. She lived to be 19. I hate to think she lived her entire life in pain.
She never became diabetic thank goodness, but she had the paw flick for her entire life and she always proceeded rather gingerly on her front paws. : \
I will NEVER ever have any of my cats declawed. Truly a frightening procedure. And when I see the three I have now using their claws to climb the cat trees and use the scratching posts I can't imagine them without them.
Last edited by OcalaLiving; 10-26-2013 at 08:32 PM..
There is a difference between correlation and causation. I have had four declawed cats, all of them lived healthy lives, well past 20 years. None were diabetic.
Would I purposely declaw a cat? No.
I have had dew claws removed from dogs, as I felt it was in their best interest.
Cats hide pain unless it is extreme and severe. Declawed cats have pain all their lives. In their paws, in their backs, in their shoulders...probably their hips, too. They learn to live with it is all. Anyone who wants declawed cats can go to any shelter and find plenty to choose from. It is my opinion that people who do this to their cats generally don't place much value on them to begin with, and so they are dumped as often, or even more often, than non mutilated cats. God, I hate it. I hate it.
What I fear though is when this horror is outlawed, there are always going to be some evil quack vets willing to do it in some filthy back room, without pain medication or adequate equipment, and the horrible things those cats will suffer....
I hate it so much.
I hope as the knowledge of what this really entails spreads, fewer and fewer people will want to have it done. We have a butcher vet in my neck of the woods who makes her main living from declaws. She does good things too, volunteers her time to a low cost spay neuter clinic once a month for example..but can it make up for the evil she does?
Last edited by catsmom21; 10-26-2013 at 07:55 PM..
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. Poor Bootsie. This was when she was probably only about two years old. She lived to be 19. I hate to think she lived her entire life in pain. 
