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Declawing a cat
shanyin
Novice YoginSault Ontario Veteran
Is declawing a cat cruel?
I am watching over someones cat in my home until it is declawed on Monday. I kinda feel like I am being used by the person and I don't know if I should continue to enable the person if the operation is cruel to the cat.
1
Comments
http://www.declawing.com/
I hope this helps. Thank you for caring enough to ask.
I think it is cruel, but if it is the only option you would have a cat in your house then it is probably better for the cat to be declawed and live with you than have no home and be put to sleep in the humane society. My mother had her cats declawed and for her it was the price they paid to live with good care in her home. And believe me aside from the cruelty of being declawed they got very good care.
Damn right it is! It's not just about taking the claws away, it pretty much makes them partial amputees! ugh!!
Simple. Don't give them the cat back....
It is. You shouldn't.
It's horrible.
Yes.
I needs my claws ... just saying ...
I've often wondered what the legal ramifications would be if you pet sat and refused to give it back. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fly in the US. But I've wondered more than once.
I am kind of of the opinion that if you feel the need to declaw a cat because you are too lazy to teach them where to scratch then you shouldn't have cats.
Some cats aren't to be taught
And then some are.
It's not really true, Jeffrey. Just like with any pet, there aren't bad pets, just bad owners. I'm not directing that at your mom. A lot of people made that choice without knowing better. When we had cats when I was young, they were also declawed as it was erroneously thought they would just ruin the house. The problem is, my parents never even tried the cats were declawed when they were still kittens, which is what happens most of the time. It would be like chopping the feet off a toddler who loves to run and climb and just doesn't know better and needs constant reminding and redirecting. Pets are really no different, people just don't want to put in that level of work with them.
@karasti I don't agree but it's not worth arguing about. When you have many many pets eventually you get one that makes messes not necessarily a declaw scratching issue. I guess you could blame the owner but you risk offending someone. And you could be wrong some day when to your surprise you get a pet making messes despite your belief that it was always the owners fault. That would be analogous to saying that it is the owners fault their roof leaks until one day your own roof leaks and then you know it wasn't the owners fault all along. I am talking not so much about the claw issue but rather just a messes issue. It is not a high percentage of pets but if you have many many pets eventually you get pets with issues. Also I understand the explanation of the anatomy of the claws of a cat but it is a bit hyperbole to say it is like chopping someones feat off. If I were a cat I would rather have my claws cut off than my testicles, but those most everyone agrees have to go due to the cat overpopulation problems and add to that that the cat will go nuts if you don't neuter and it smells a female cat in heat (or with dogs too and with female cats/dogs being spayed). So we've already established that surgery can be justified in having a pet and the disagreement is only about whether it is justified in the case of claws. I would file that under 'none of my business' in that I wouldn't lecture someone unsolicited my opinion (and I don't favor claw surgery) though of course if asked by someone for an opinion (such as here on a forum question) it is appropriate to share your opinion with friends or strangers.
@Jeffrey said:
Declawing an adult cat makes the cat miserable, but they hardly seem to realize when their testicles have gone missing - the cruelty issue doesn't really arise there.
The real problem with cat claws is not that they rip up the furniture - furniture can be covered with blankets if all else fails. The big issue is that fully equipped domestic cats are very efficient predators that are in no way dependent on their prey - they can kill every bird within a 2 mile radius and still get fat on canned cat food.
That said, I would personally do everything possible to resolve the issue before I would have a cat declawed. It is cruel, and it leaves the cat entirely helpless, unable either to escape up a tree or to fight when threatened.
Is declawing a cat cruel?
Chop off your fingers and toes and get back to me on this.
Yes, cats kill a lot of animals, but they do so when they are declawed, too. Ours when we were kids always were killing birds and moles and mice, and they were declawed as I had no choice in the matter as a child. I wouldn't do it today. But ask most people with cats why they declaw, and furniture/drapes/blinds are the number one answer. We have a tendency to have pets for what we get out of them with less thought than we should have to how they feel about matters. I, personally, would get "neutered" rather than have fingers and toes cut off. Thankfully, since I had already had a csection, my husband opted to get neutered instead, lol.
Everyone does the best they can at any point. We know more about how declawing hurts cats now than we did in the 90s when I had cats. I've had a lot of pets, @Jeffrey. And I mean a lot. But my desire for pets has been under scrutiny by myself for a while now and we are unlikely to continue to get pets for our pleasure because I think it contributes to a lot of problems for the animals. Currently we have a dog, 2 ferrets, a gecko, a tortoise and a salt water fish tank. We have had many others including quite a few cats. I still would not make the choice to declaw a cat because my reasons for doing so would be my own reasons and of no benefit whatsoever to the animal. If I determine I don't want a cat to claw up my stuff, then I won't get a cat.
For comparing declawing to a human losing their fingers or toes we have to think about that realistically though it does make a good case in terms of appeal to emotion which we also see in things such as discussions about vegetarianism. What does each species lose? A cat loses some defenses of course but they can still hunt which is a gratifying instinctive behaviour. A human with opposable thumbs does a lot of things with their fingers and they are probably substantially more effected by losing fingers than a cat is affected by the declawing operation. I don't think there is a case (a certain number or type of lost fingers or toes) where they are 'even' to a cat. So I think you have to think a little bit more about it if you are analyzing comparing a cat's declawing operation to what a human would experience though I do agree it is a good appeal to emotion as can be found in discussions of vegetarianism. And you cannot know what is in the cat's head. You cannot 'project' that a cat really misses its claws while at the same time 'projecting' that the cat does not miss its testicals or ovaries. You can say it seems 'they hardly seem to realize when their testicles have gone missing' but then I would say the probably the 8 declawed cats I knew I could project 'they hardly seem to realize when their claws have gone missing'. But I don't really know what is in a cat's head. Also a (declawed) cat is not totally defenseless. One of their greatest defenses is their snarls and ability to look scary. The effect of claws on safety and self defense probably depends (or varies) on the environment and wild animals that live around them and if they indeed do go outdoors. My mother had declawed outdoor cats and they sometimes do get in a fight and have a bite that needed to be treated with antibiotics but none disappeared or anything debilitating. 7 were declawed and these 7 went outdoors whereas for one had never learned to be outdoors when he came to her (mom) adopted from a friend. Of them one was the worst offender for messes (he sprayed) and probably none of the other cats were even close to him in terms of messes. For dogs mom had a lot of different dogs and one of the reason so many is adopting a series of rescue dogs because they arrive older and die sooner. Many of the dogs have had different problems making messes to the point that I will probably never own my own animals due to the experience even though I enjoy giving animals affection (not so much cleaning up after or feeding and taking to vets). Rescue animals might be an option @karasti if you are questioning the ethics of having an animal taken domestically that the animal was created for purpose of human enjoyment. The rescue animal is already created and has no home so whatever you give them is better than the alternative.
But your claws are the most tasty part of your body.......... or so I have heard
Horribly so and more abhorrent that human convenience provides the option - thank goodness it's illegal in the UK.
Not if you never let them outside!
>
If they never go outside, and their life is completely unnatural, why do they need claws? When might they miss them? Other than when they want to tear the couch to shreds that is.
Fighting other cats outside and catching mice aren't the only thing cats need claws for.
Why Cats Need Their Claws
That's good information. Thanks.
Is it true that cats don't care about their owners, only dogs do? I know cases where dogs have died immediately after their owners have. So dogs are loyal and cats are not?
Cats are territorial so they are attached to the house. Dogs like their wolf cousins are social. So they follow the leader or head dog ie.the owner. @techie
Loyalty does not play a part here. I don't think it's right to attribute human values to animals. They are what they are.
I gave the cat back before reading most of these things.
I saw the cat again at the owners house and the first thing it started doing was aggressively hiss like it was miserable.
I should have kept the cat.
Hindsight is 20/20 vision.
Yes... they probably would have gotten the police involved.
.... and as declawing is not illegal in the USA (as it is in the UK, along with tail docking and ear-clipping) they probably would have had a right to report you for kitnapping.
Seriously.
Do I live in the USA? :S Close to it but not really.
But yeah.. declawing is not illegal in Canada so it's the same thing.
sorry, should have checked location.....
Just curious if you ever thought to provide the person with some resources as to why it's not a good idea. We can't control what they do with information, but we can offer it to those who might not know. For a long time I didn't know. Then somewhere, someone spoke up and I learned differently. That's how it works. If no one offers us new information we never have the choice to choose differently.
I told him it's cruel and talked to him about alternatives. At this point... it's none of my business.
Yes, I meant at the time and not after the fact. However, passing judgement rarely works to get people to listen. Telling someone what they are doing is cruel (even if it is true) is not usually going to get them to listen to you, because what they hear is "you are cruel" and it shuts down any communication. It would be better (in the future) to simply suggest there are other options that do not present risk to the cat and give them the information to go through on their own. I have gone through this with a friend who has many cats, and just like with most beliefs we hold dear, they don't take kindly to the suggestion that their beliefs are wrong. I stopped telling her what I thought, and simply provided her with a couple of links including why it's bad, and what alternatives there are.
And has she taken any notice?
Her last cat (the only she has gotten since our conversation a couple of years ago) is not declawed. How much what I sent swayed her, I don't know. I never asked. She has 5 or 6 cats. Her initial desire was to protect her leather furniture. However, they have since built a nice play and scratching area for the cats and it hasn't been an issue with the latest addition. Her cats are basically her children, and I suspect once she realized it caused them pain when there were other alternatives, she just couldn't do it anymore. She had allowed herself to believe it didn't cause them pain or any problems, that it was no different than having an ingrown toenail clipped or a pesky tooth removed.