I keep hearing about people getting their cats declawed or cat owners casually talking about their plans to have their cat declawed. While the idea of declawing a cat causes me great outrage, what upsets me even more is that these cat owners are almost invariably ignorant of what the procedure actually involves – they think declawing is okay because they don’t know any better.

While the general public may be excused for not knowing what declawing is (really, could anything sound more innocuous than “declaw”?) I consider it inexcusable that anyone who has had a cat declawed or is planning to have their cat declawed does not fully understand what the procedure is and the potential negative side effects.

Some questions for the vets

So, veterinarians, why are you declawing cats without having a serious discussion with your clients before hand?

Why are you performing an elective procedure, that is so painful and cruel that almost every country in Europe has forbidden it, without making sure the owners of these cats can make an educated decision?

Why are you not ensuring that cat owners have tried and exhausted all other options for modifying undesirable scratching behaviour before consenting to declaw surgery?

I’m sure some vets find declawing to be a lucrative business – perhaps money is a motivating factor?

I’m sure others are concerned about alientating people by questioning a client’s request for declaw surgery or trying to open up a discussion about it. I also think that that is absurd. I often hear of vets being very vocal in their disapproval of other choices made by pet owners and yet their practices aren’t going out of business for lack of clients.

And ultimately, as the veterinary professional it is your responsibility to make recommendations that are in the best interests of the animal and to help pet owners make informed decisions. It is your responsibility to act ethically.

Some questions for cat owners who have declawed/are considering declaw

And cat owners – why are you not educating yourself about a major surgical procedure?

Why would you consider a major elective procedure without knowing anything about it and without asking your vet a single question about what will be done or what might happen afterward?

Have you made a genuine attempt to address scratching behaviour before considering declawing, or did you jump to declawing as a “easy” solution?

As a cat owner it is your responsibility to make good, informed decisions for your cat. You are all they have and their life and wellbeing is in your hands. Requesting a procedure that is painful, cruel, irreversible and often results in other behavioural issues is not responsible pet ownership.

As a cat owner you also must be willing to accept and manage natural cat behaviours. This doesn’t mean letting your cat destroy everything in your home or injure your family – it means taking the time and effort to train your cat, to channel natural behaviour so that it is not destructive and to understand & work with your cat’s fundamental nature to create a situation where you can both live happily.

Mutilating your cat to save your couch is just bad pet ownership. Doing it out of ignorance is tragic.

Don’t let ignorance hurt cats

Ultimately, ignorance is inexcusable and the damage done to cats out of ignorance is permanent. Almost every single person I’ve talked to who has been educated about what declawing is has expressed their shock and revulsion at the realities of the procedure. Vets – take the time to educate your clients and help them make responsible choices. Cat owners – take the time to educate yourself and do what is right for you and your cat.

Watch for upcoming articles with more on declawing – what it is, why it’s harmful, why cats need their claws, declaw alternatives and fixing undesirable behaviour without harming your cat.

Declawing resources:

(7 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5)

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 1:41 am and is filed under Cat Care, Declawing, Habits, Health, Opinion, Responsible ownership, Surgery, Veterinarians. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Declawing – don’t choose to stay ignorant”

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Rebecca Says:
January 24th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Excellent article, I just hope more people read it. I can’t believe anyone would even think of declawing a cat, I believe it leaves psychological and emotional scars as well as physical.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of EFT, you should check out the website (emofree.com) I think, it’s along the lines of accupressure. Originally for people, but som folks started using it surrogately, then on animals with amazing successs. I remember reading one story about a woman who was having behavior problems with her 2 cats, well she or someone tried EFT and they “got” all this painful emotional stuff about the cats having been declawed. Maybe sounds wacky but I think animals have a lot more emotional stuff going on than we give them credit for.

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Anlina Reply:
January 24th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Thank you.

I will definitely look through that EFT site – it looks very interesting and I’m always on the look out for alternative therapies, as the wide range of nasty side effects that come with most drugs concerns me deeply. My mother has two old cats who are on medication for chronic pain and it sounds like this might be beneficial for bringing them some more emotional and physical comfort.

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Kitsune_rei Says:
February 13th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I had to fight with my mom not to declaw my cat when I came home for a bit after living up north before I got the place I live now. She was really concerned about the furniture. Her cat doesn’t have front claws (we got him when I was still in middle school so he’s pretty old now) and she says she wishes she’d done them all, but there’s something deeply wrong with him emotionally honestly. He’s a mean cat and will bite and scratch to draw blood out of the blue. He spazzes out if he gets too much petting.
Anyhow, my cat is very friendly and won’t use her claws on people, so I ended up getting the Soft Paws claw covers during the time she was home as a compromise, since I didn’t train her very strictly about furniture since I never had anything I cared about very much, I got her while I was in college and it was all temporary furniture. They aren’t perfect but they’re a pretty good fix with some regular maintenance. (In the end she wanted to keep my cat and give me hers >.>)

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Anlina Reply:
February 15th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Mm, those are really common issues with declawed cats. I’m glad you were able to persevere with your mother and didn’t cave into getting your baby declawed. You just can’t predict whether they’ll bounce back or will develop permanent issues.

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Kitsune_rei Reply:
February 15th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I think he was a little weird to start with, my mom’s bf got him for us from some weird lady who worked for him as a kitten, she was from a bad neighborhood and we always joked he was a ‘crack kitty’. The one time she saw him again, she picked him up by the scruff of his neck and he was terrified >.< He did a good bit of hiding as a kitten, and never was a lap cat. At most he’d lay next to you for a bit.
He has eating issues, in that he *always* eats everything as fast as possible and is starving 5min later like you never fed him, so you can’t just leave food out. He also desperately wants *everything* you’re eating so likes to be a pest.

Now that he’s older he’s a little more mellow, though he still will randomly flip out. He’s part Siamese, so we attribute that to part of the meanness. He used to attack my mom every night when she’d turn out the living room lights to go to bed, like clockwork. Now its just sometimes.

Spider rings is actually about the only toy he really likes. Well, and the Christmas tree. Though he has a catnip mouse that every night he’ll pick it up in his mouth and meow for a bit, then go drop it somewhere. He’s so strange.

I didn’t know declawing made them that psychotic O.o I’ve heard it does make them a little weird, but I can’t imagine its the whole cause.

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Anlina Reply:
February 15th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Well, the thing is, you just can’t know what the long term effects of declawing will be for any individual cat.

Some declawed cats are fine and don’t behave any differently from a cat with their claws, but others develop behavioural issues. Claws are such an integral part of a cat – they’re not just used for self-defence, but for marking territory, climbing, balance, stretching… A painful recovery can create bad associations with the litter box which can be difficult to correct, and lack of claws can make a cat stressed out and insecure, leading to biting, aggression, withdrawing or other anti-social behaviour. Can’t really blame the cat either – I’d probably be pretty traumatized if someone cut off all my fingers at the first joint.

If the cat already had emotional or socialization issues that that could be why he behaves the way he does… the declawing might have exacerbated it or may not have had an impact.

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Lynne Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 6:53 am
I adopted a cat a year ago who had been stripped of his beautiful and oh so necessary claws. He was very affectionate, perhaps overly, but did have messing on the carpet issues and wetting in certain family members’ beds. His box was always cleaned. My heart went out to him because he knew he was different than our cat with claws, i.e could never use the kitty tree, dared not jump to high places, etc. He tried constantly but fruitlessly to sharpen non-existent claws. How sad is that??? A couple of months ago he accidently got outside and I haven’t seen him since No defenses! If people care more about their ‘belongings and trappings”, they should not have a cat. Get FISH
I think declawing should be outlawed or at least a refused practice among vets.

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Declawing – don’t choose to stay ignorant