Oct 27 2008
Declawing Your Feline Friend
Is it wrong to declaw your cat? I hear of people declawing their cats pretty often, but in my opinion, it just seems a little excessive and inhumane. Although some cat owners do it to protect their household furniture from being clawed at, is it really the only way? I’ve heard about vinyl nail caps (probably best for indoor cats) and scratching posts, yet some cat owners say they have no luck with getting their cat to use the posts. It’s not my intention to blame a pet owner for their pet’s overall behavior, but I do believe that the habits of an animal depend on how the owner raised or trained it (that is, if you raised your pet since they were young). I think that training or familiarizing your pet to certain habits works best when the animal is young. I just don’t want this declawing procedure to be abused by the percentage of pet owners that are just looking for a quick fix.
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Hypothetically speaking, even if declawing a cat was the only way to maintain a beautiful home (furniture and all), I don’t think it’s reason enough to physically alter or amputate a part of a cat’s anatomy. After all, that is what happens in the surgery room—the doctor has to cut bones, ligaments, and tendons during this procedure. It is not equivalent to pulling out a human finger nail. With surgery comes possible complications that can occur during the recovery period. Surgery should be performed under extreme circumstances or needs, but is protecting furniture one of them?
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It’s not just their paws that suffer either, their whole muscle structure will stiffen and cramp! Cats use their claws to help anchor themselves so they can stretch their muscles out.
My cat has two things he’s allowed to scratch on, his post and the back of this chair (I rescued it from the garbage, and don’t expect it to live long enough to be destroyed). Everything else resulted in the spray bottle, or the canned air (not at him! He hates the sound) and it only took a few weeks for him to learn!
If you’re furniture is so important to your life that a single mark on them causes you to send kitty off for surgery, perhaps you should be re thinking cats.
Jennifer, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of declawing a cat because I think it’s inhumane for a handful of reasons. I, too, think that people should reconsider getting a cat if they don’t fancy their little claws.
It’s good to hear that you saved your cat’s life AND that you trained him in a way that didn’t involve taking away what he was rightfully born with.