Declawing Cats

[FreakyLocz14]

I hope you never own a pet.

We have 3 cats, 2 dogs, and 1 deceased dog. We also had several llamas, and breifly had some sheep.

Nice personal attack, though.

 

[Safir-Hime]

I personally find no reason in declawing cats. I thought about it with my cat because he destroys so many things with his claws. But then I discovered these cat claw covers that glue on. They work great, the cat still gets to enjoy his claws and he can't tear anything up. The only thing with those is keeping up on trimming them because they don't shed off like normal claws, so its easy for the claw to grow and curl underneath their paw. My cat has had them off for a few months now and I can tell he doesn't like his sharp claws anymore, he gets attached to everything when he tries to walk. DX

I suppose I consider animals property as well, they don't necessarily get the choice to live with us or not. We purchase them, feed them, and raise them. However just because they're property doesn't give someone the right to hurt them. De-clawing an older cat is indeed a torturous thing, just like renaming an animal. Its confusing, it hurts them, they can't walk right.
De clawing an indoor only kitten, while its still not very good, is much better because they grow up without them, so they adapt easier.

 

[Livewire]

and sports (dog fighting, **** fighting, etc.).

Tell that to Michael Vick and that nice felony dog fighting charge.

 

[Oryx]

We have 3 cats, 2 dogs, and 1 deceased dog. We also had several llamas, and breifly had some sheep.

Nice personal attack, though.

I've given all my points, given reasonable alternatives, given statistics that show how dangerous it is for cats, given logical reasons why no one should declaw. The only reason you can possibly still think it shouldn't be banned is a personal lack of empathy for other living animals, which may sound like a personal attack to you but that's honestly the only reason you would be willing to allow animals to go through that much pain. I feel sorry for those animals, if you really think of them as "property" and think that hurting them intentionally and scarring them long-term is an appropriate way to treat them.

By the way, dogfighting is illegal. So is "maliciously wounding" an animal. Just because you have legal ownership over an animal and they can't always fight back does not make them less able to feel pain. The government agrees with that, as far as I know there's no dispute that animal cruelty laws should be removed because "they're property and therefore they don't matter".

Do you have any reason other than the reason that has been already destroyed (they're property so it doesn't matter what pain they feel)? Because if you don't, then this conversation is pretty much over.

 

[deoxys121]

Tell that to Michael Vick and that nice felony dog fighting charge.

Exactly. Dog fighting and **** fighting are just wrong. Making animals kill each other for human entertainment? That's just sickening.

 

[Sydian]

We have 3 cats, 2 dogs, and 1 deceased dog. We also had several llamas, and breifly had some sheep.

Nice personal attack, though.

So you...kept the deceased dog? Am I the only one finding that strange? Anyway, dog fighting and **** fighting are illegal, so yeah, that is someone's business. Saying "you can do whatever you want with your property" is kinda like telling me my car is my property, so I can go run people over with it because it's mine. It IS my property, after all! Property or not, there are limits to what you can do with it, like guns, knives, cars, etc. You can't just do whatever you want with your property. There are laws to abide by, which I figured you of all people would know. So even if you do consider a pet property, there are laws protecting them against abuse and the likes.

 

[Kirozane]

I honestly do not find de-clawing cats very humane... Since it is removing the last bone in the toe, it would be like someone coming in and cutting off our fingertips for safety reasons. I understand why some people do it. They don't want their cats hurting them or their loved ones, tearing up their furniture, etc. I understand the reasoning, and the procedure as a whole, but that doesn't make me support it. It can more than cripple the cat, what with infection and paralysis. Plus, when they do play, they lose the traction and thus extra support the claws give,so they can get hurt if they can't stop themselves.

Okay wow that was a terrible post... I had an opinion but didn't word it well. >.>

 

[Smallbirdie]

Nobody has mention declawed cats and litter boxes, so I'd like to add my 2 cents. I use to volunteer at a no-kill cat shelter, and there was a room for cats that can't (or won't) use a litter box. There were many reasons why the cats might be there, some had bladder problems, one was paralyzed, some were sick and there temporarily... but the biggest single reason for a cat to end up in that room was because it was an indoor cat declawed by its owner.

People would get their cats declawed and bring them home. The cat would go to use the litter box and the grains of litter as well as the digging movements would cause them extreme pain that they began to associate with the litter box. And then they'd stop using it. And because the owners don't want a cat that won't use a litter box, they end up at the shelter. Even after their paws have healed most of them still won't ever use the litter box. They will more than likely spend the rest of their lives in that room because who would want to adopt them? Especially when there are perfectly healthy, litter-box-using cats in the next room over. The shelter tries to give them a good life, but it'll never be as good as with a loving family. In addition no one other than the regular staff hardly ever even visits that room because the smell is so bad.

They are sweet, loving cats that didn't deserve to have that happen to them. Declawing is a terrible, terrible thing.

 

[Livewire]

Nobody has mention declawed cats and litter boxes, so I'd like to add my 2 cents. I use to volunteer at a no-kill cat shelter, and there was a room for cats that can't (or won't) use a litter box. There were many reasons why the cats might be there, some had bladder problems, one was paralyzed, some were sick and there temporarily... but the biggest single reason for a cat to end up in that room was because it was and indoor cat declawed by its owner.
People would get their cats declawed and bring them home. The cat would go to use the litter box and the grains of litter and the digging movements would cause them extreme pain that they began to associate with the litter box. And then they'd stop using it. And because the owners don't want a cat that won't use a litter box, they end up at the shelter. Even after their paws have healed most of them still won't ever use the litter box. They will more than likely spend the rest of their lives in that room because who would want to adopt them? The shelter tries to give them a good live, but no one hardly ever even visits that room because the smell is so bad.
They are sweet, loving cats that didn't deserve to have that happen to them. Declawing is a terrible, terrible thing.

We had my cat declawed when he was very young, after we got him from the pound. He lived a long, happy and fulfilled life some 13 years afterwards. So, yeah. Now obviously, there are risks and concerns with declawing a cat, and rightfully so. It should only be done if there is no alternative. It's not a decision that one should halfass. But an overall ban is ridiculous and unnecessary.

 

[Safir-Hime]

Wow SmallBirdie, that brought tears to my eyes....that's really sad DX
I had no idea cats would do that, but it makes sense....that's just so horrible.

 

[-ty-]

We can choose to treat our pets as members of the family. Some people don't choose that. People buy pets as guards (guard dogs), for agriculture (sheep dogs), for assistance (seeing-eye pets), and sports (dog fighting, **** fighting, etc.).

Our pets are our property. What someone does with their property is only their business.

Really? Dog fighting? People should be able to do whatever they want to with their animals b/c they are property?

I know people who had dogs that they barely fed and left them outside all winter, so I asked them to take care of their animal, because with ownership of dogs, cats, and other animals comes responsibility for the animal's well-being. They decided not to. So, I called animal control and the ass that was negligent of his animals had to spend 90 days in jail. You cannot treat them equivalent to an ordinary piece of property; Yes, animals are considered "chattel", but with having chattel you are responsible for its health.

 

[Oryx]

We had my cat declawed when he was very young, after we got him from the pound. He lived a long, happy and fulfilled life some 13 years afterwards. So, yeah. Now obviously, there are risks and concerns with declawing a cat, and rightfully so. It should only be done if there is no alternative. It's not a decision that one should halfass. But an overall ban is ridiculous and unnecessary.

The point I'm trying to make is that there is always an alternative, there are many alternatives and the amount of alternatives will only grow in the future. There are spray bottles to keep them from scratching, there is nail trimming/grinding, there are scratching posts, and if the problem is ongoing and none of these work, there are Soft Paws (vinyl nail tips). There are only 2 differences between resorting to Soft Paws and declawing: 1. Tthe cat will suffer a few days of discomfort (imagine wearing fake nails kind of discomfort) with no pain with Soft Paws, while declawing will cause possible weeks of pain (depending on how you declaw them), a high chance of complications, all the things I already mentioned in previous posts. Soft Paws have none of those downsides. 2. The declawing is a one-time-only thing, where Soft Paws are every 4-6 weeks and requires the owner to be able to trim claws. However, in my experience with cats, trimming claws is not the most terrible thing to happen to a cat owner, especially if you have another person to help you. If it's that big a problem, I'm sure a vet would have no problem trimming the cat's claws and applying the Soft Paws.

I cannot think of a time when Soft Paws is not a viable alternative, even financially. If you're so hard up for money that you can't afford 20 bucks every 8 months, then chances are you will never be able to afford declawing in the first place, as well as food and such for your pet.

 

[Mr. X]

For those saying you can do whatever you wish (including risk/cause the death of) a animal just because you own it I have a few words for you.

Get some damn morals or go remove yourselves from the genepool.

That is all.

 

[~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~]

Being a cat owner I wanted to declaw them but I've heard that after a certain age they can not be declawed (since my oldest cat will be 5 in September) but after reading the complications, I wouldn't want my cats to go through this.


:t354:TG