VCA USA takes a stand against "declawing" (kitten, declaw, weight)
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Banfield last month, VCA immediately. 9 other states working on or already presenting legislation: Arizona, California ,Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and West Virginia, are the other states. New Hampshire did not pass committee but it will be back next year.
7 out of 10 Canadian provinces banned it in the last 2 years.
New York State, the first state, banned it July 2019. Denver, Co (city and county) last year, St. Louis Missouri a few months ago, and those 8 cities in California back in the early 2000s.
Even when a bill doesn't make it, it is still bringing awareness and education. It's hard sometimes, so hard, the defeats, because we know more cats are being damaged every day, while we wait for these bills to pass, but every day someone else is learning and making the decision to not have their cat's toes amputated.
We're getting there. Someday there will be no more need for this:
I haven't owned a cat since I was a little girl, and I only recently became aware that declawing is no longer as common as it was back then.
I can understand that some people feel it is better to leave the cat's claws in. But like with any controversial subject, it is important to consider benefits and downfalls of all sides.
One thing I would worry about, if it is illegal to declaw a cat, is that a certain percentage of people who would otherwise have adopted a kitty, may decide not to. Claws can certainly be destructive to carpet, furniture, curtains. Is it better for a cat to be adopted and declawed, rather than not be adopted at all?
Just food for thought.
Why is a carpet or curtains or furniture more important that a cat's health and well being?
All sides have been considered for many years. Declawing is considered to be cruel and inhumane in most of the civilized world. It's already been proven that declaw bans do not increase shelter surrenders or decrease shelter adoptions. It is not taking the claws out, it is amputating the weight bearing toes of a cat, 10 amputations of the bone, tendons and nerves and ligaments, which causes life time pain as has been proven by the study linked above. Please read the links provided and learn the facts about these issues.
No it is not "better for a cat to be adopted and declawed than to not be adopted at all" and it is a false argument. Declawed cats are far more likely to be dumped.
Most of the rest of the world lives without cutting the toes off of cats. Eventually cat feet will be safe everywhere.
If the term "toe amputation" were used more often than 'declawed', perhaps people would think twice because humans can relate to parts that are similar to their own.
3 of the last 4 cats that I have adopted have been amputees.
Why is a carpet or curtains or furniture more important that a cat's health and well being?
Exactly. I bought my couch brand new for $600 in August 2016. After 3.5 years of me sitting on it it's not worth $600 anymore. And Shelly has clawed it off and on, but so what??? I just put a loose throw blanket over the back and a scratching post in front of the front corner (one end is against the wall)... done. Solves the problem.
Why is a carpet or curtains or furniture more important that a cat's health and well being?
All sides have been considered for many years. Declawing is considered to be cruel and inhumane in most of the civilized world. It's already been proven that declaw bans do not increase shelter surrenders or decrease shelter adoptions. It is not taking the claws out, it is amputating the weight bearing toes of a cat, 10 amputations of the bone, tendons and nerves and ligaments, which causes life time pain as has been proven by the study linked above. Please read the links provided and learn the facts about these issues.
No it is not "better for a cat to be adopted and declawed than to not be adopted at all" and it is a false argument. Declawed cats are far more likely to be dumped.
Most of the rest of the world lives without cutting the toes off of cats. Eventually cat feet will be safe everywhere.
You replied fast. Shortly after posting I deleted everything, because I realized my opinions may not be all that intelligent. My thoughts were shaped 50+ years ago when declawing was as common as spay/neuter. I'll admit I never heard anything about it including "toe amputation" until this thread.
My beloved childhood "Fluffy" was declawed, and certainly never seemed to be in pain or affected. I remember she used to crack us all up with how high she could jump, like to the top of the refrigerator in a single bound. She was an active, playful cat, so it seems her feet worked fine, but I could be wrong.
And FOR ME, I would not have a pet in the house if it tore up curtains and furniture. I remember Fluffy, as a tiny kitten before her spay and declaw, would climb up the curtains and my mom would get mad.
But it's irrelevant now, as my husband is allergic to cats so we won't ever have one.
You replied fast. Shortly after posting I deleted everything, because I realized my opinions may not be all that intelligent. My thoughts were shaped 50+ years ago when declawing was as common as spay/neuter. I'll admit I never heard anything about it including "toe amputation" until this thread.
My beloved childhood "Fluffy" was declawed, and certainly never seemed to be in pain or affected. I remember she used to crack us all up with how high she could jump, like to the top of the refrigerator in a single bound. She was an active, playful cat, so it seems her feet worked fine, but I could be wrong.
And FOR ME, I would not have a pet in the house if it tore up curtains and furniture. I remember Fluffy, as a tiny kitten before her spay and declaw, would climb up the curtains and my mom would get mad.
But it's irrelevant now, as my husband is allergic to cats so we won't ever have one.
Thanks for coming back. Having any animal has the potential to cause damage in a home. Even a fishtank can leak or smell. Dogs chew things and bite, and their claws scratch floors and walls and doors and people, but most people don't require removing the dog's teeth or cutting off the dog's toes.
All pets require work and management.
Amputating a cat's toes to save a curtain that the kitten is going to be too heavy to climb in a few months is a terrible thing to do. Cats hide pain instinctively and even a cat jumping (from her hind feet) onto the refrigerator may be feeling some pain in her back and legs, let alone her feet, especially as she gets older. She was just doing what cats do, regardless of her disability. What choice did she have after all?
Cats need their claws for many things. They walk on the toes that are amputated. When those digits are burned or cut off, the cat's entire alignment and gait is messed up, forever. She has to walk on her wrists, or on bones that were never meant to bear weight. This causes the joints and muscles to deteriorate in ways they wouldn't normally until old age. Not to mention, cats use their claws for exercising. When they scratch they dig in with their claws and stretch, and this exercises al parts of the body, toning and stretching all the muscles and joints. A "declawed" cat can't even get relief that way.
Their toe pads are usually very rough and calloused. There is often contracture of the tendons,, causing great pain. Bone chips and claw regrowth are very common. Did you know that cats can't limp if both feet hurt?
People like to say their "declawed cat was fine, I never had any problems" but it's not the person who is having the problems is it? It's the cat. Part of the issue here is declawing vets lie to their clients and push declawing because they make a vast income doing it.
This is why when organizations like VCA, with almost a thousand clinics in the USA and 6 times as many vets practicing in those clinics, stop doing it, it is a huge meaningful step in our efforts to ban this mutilation once and for all.
When the vets stop doing it, and start telling the truth about it, the education and understanding about how terrible it is spreads faster.
You can visit the facebook page "New Lease On Life" to find out what cats suffer from this needless surgery. A whole new highly specialized surgery had to be invented to help "declawed" cats.
My father is on blood thinners. One time a neighbor's dog jumped on him. Of course the neighbor thought it was "cute", until his dog's sharp claws tore into my dad's arm and blood gushed out. He needed eight stitches for that. I know an elderly lady also on blood thinners who has two beloved cats that are declawed. She wouldn't be able to own them if they weren't.
My father is on blood thinners. One time a neighbor's dog jumped on him. Of course the neighbor thought it was "cute", until his dog's sharp claws tore into my dad's arm and blood gushed out. He needed eight stitches for that. I know an elderly lady also on blood thinners who has two beloved cats that are declawed. She wouldn't be able to own them if they weren't.
Of course she would. the CDC does NOT recommend "declawing" for cats in homes where people are on blood thinners or have other diseases. This is a common, and false, argument. Declawed cats are far more likely to bite.
Do you think people in other countries don't have health issues and take blood thinners? And yet, they still manage to enjoy living with cats without cutting or burning off their toes.
Where does this idea come from that cats are so evil they will scratch you to bits if you don't cut off their toes? Vets. That's where it comes from. A vet invented the procedure in the 1950s. And vets have been pushing it and making a fortune on it ever since. I am thrilled to be a part of ending this horror.
For people who "won't have a clawed cat" I say that is a good thing,. No cat should be in a home where the people feel that cutting off the cat's toes is necessary for the cat to have that "good home". A home that insists on amputating the cat's toes is not a "good home".
People who won't make the effort to train a cat to scratch on appropriate places are not going to tolerate other normal cat behaviors, especially the kind of behaviors that happen after the cat has been crippled, such as litter box avoidance, biting and personality change. "Declawing" makes a cat far more likely to be surrendered to a shelter or simply dumped outside, or abused. Many of these cats are never rescued. Often, the ones that are are so damaged as to be considered "unadoptable" and so euthanized.
Declawing does not save lives or keep cats in homes. All this has been studied and evaluated. These bans are many years in the making. All the arguments *for* declawing have been debunked. I have posted many links for the education of anyone who wants to learn the facts of the matter.
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