The difference in how you do it between an adult and a kitten is total different.
Yes you are removing part of the "finger", just like when young males get part of their pecker whacked off, so I guess that if a male is circumcised that he is going to have behavioral issues..... Now go back to that and think about it... they do a circumcision at an early age one for lack or remembrance and if it's done when older then it can cause issues.. "Most cat fancy organizations either *prohibit* declawing or strongly discourage it." Yes and you also have people like peta who break into places and release animals thinking that its good for the animals when in fact those animals don't know how to live outside of that environment and they end up getting killed very quickly or suffer immense issues. A lot of these "rules" are based upon someone's personal beliefs or something based off of a "biased" movie or something they fictional saw or read. Again like these peta people, they show them setting free the animals but don't show the part where they run out the door and into the street and immediately underneath someone's tire or if they are lucky enough to find a home how they hide under the bed all the time or crap everywhere but the cat box or a generally basket cases because they were taken out of the world they knew. Which is like a kitten.. they havent learned what all the uses for their claws are yet so if you take it away the adjust, basically the same way as a blind person or a disabled person does, also when you are doing a kitten they aren't fully developed yet so removing the claw is relatively easy as it is still in the growing stages, whereas in adult it is not. " being that I have personally declawed hundreds of cats in my day ??? Please explain ???" might have something to do with my 3 degrees in vet med and 10+ years working 60-120 hours a week in the field. "I don't know anyone - even fully qualified vets - that have declawed "hundreds" of cats." well I don't have an "exact" # i have done but if you average about 3-5 a week for over ten years you come out with quite a large #. I would say at least half of all the spay/neuters we ever did included declawing as well. Might be the vets you use as well, a lot of the spay/neuter clinks that cash cow these things probably do 20-30 a day. I know the spay/neuter clinic in denver used to do around 60 spay/neuters a day and clinics like that do tons of them. To the person who replied after sean. well thats great that you were "going" to go into vet medicine but you didn't and I did for a long time and do you not think this is a debate I have never been apart of? Especially back when I was doing it and when I first had to do it I did think it was wrong but I had to do it as it was my job and over time my opinions on it eased as I saw very few problems with the cats afterwards. Matter of fact the only real issues I saw were on adult cats where part of the bone was left in and caused infection and some did have behavioral issues. However, I saw very few behavioral issue in kittens that were done that were contributed solely to a declawing. Hell I have seen cats go completely psycho on owners for changing colognes or even lovers or food type or even detergent. And you are asking me for all this proof and studies when you were the one saying "its been proven in studies". And then you didn't have any studies to reference. Studies or no studies I worked in the trenches with this stuff every day and I got to see it up close and first hand on a daily basis and I also got to see the results for years after the fact. And when you say about how they are "freaking out" when waking up after, well they do that regardless especially if they were given ketamine. Like i said before, on an older cat I agree it ain't right and they do have pain but not younger cats. If you declawed a kitten and put bandages on then yes they do shake their legs because... well there is big heavy bandages on them. The ones that we would just "super glue" up showed relatively little discomfort at all. If your belief is otherwise then it don't bother me.. And I am not arguing against you but trying to give my experience to the poster which happens to be about as real as it can get, it's not something I read in a magazine or heard someone say, it's what I saw with my own eyes. You can give your views and what you think is right or wrong but it doesn't mean that they or anyone has to believe you (or me) just because its your belief and you posted it to a bulletin board. on the "sofa" issue you were so perturbed over... Again, thats just your opinion but the truth is that probably to a big majority of cat owners that IS AN ISSUE and so I brought it up(doesn't mean I personally believe in it but a lot of ppl do). Again it is not up to you to decide for the poster if it is or isnt an issue for them, you can of course express your opinion but ya know maybe it is something to this person that could be a difference maker. How many cats a year do you think are put to sleep because they scratched up somebody's expensive new couch or chair or curtains? How many tens of thousands do you think the number really is in the USA every year? So with that being said then are you ok with the cat being put to sleep over it being declawed or do you think if that cat could have been saved by declawing it when it was young that that would have been a better choice? I'm not gunna sit here and argue with the you guys over it forever, it's more of a personal belief but I did feel the need to seperate your personal beliefs from offering him some insight from someone here on the list who actually has a pretty vast amount of experience on the subject. Some of you say it's cruel and wrong and I am fine with that and hopefully the poster can agree. Poster, ask your vet about it, ask what they think and they like us have opinions to. It will also depend on the skill of who does it. On an adult cat you basically take a pair of nail clippers and sorta maneuver your way by feel between the bones and a lot of time you leave bone and thats one reason why adults have more issues. On kittens you use a #15 scalpel blade and since the bones aren't fully grown there is a lot of "looseness" between the bones and the blade glides through them very easily and it's not as big a deal as most would think. Personally, if I just got a new kitten and for whatever reason had to consider doing it, it would certainly be an option that I wouldn't have a problem with given what knowledge i have in the subject. If the cat was older than 6 months then I wouldn't consider it at all. > On Dec 21, 2007 2:09 PM, Dave l <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The studies you refer to are on adult cats, in which case I agree > that declawing is not the right thing to do. It is painful and once a > cat understands the uses of it's claws (scratching, fighting, etc..) > it can cause behavioral issues. > > > > However on younger kittens it isn't much of an issue at all. > > You are *completely* and utterly wrong. Declawing is an extremely > cruel and unnecessary surgical procedure and it tends to cause cats > to > bite because they no longer have any other way to "defend" themselves. > > > Most cat fancy organizations either *prohibit* declawing or strongly > discourage it. > > Declawing is essentially amputation of the end of the cat's "fingers". > > > There are *occasionally* - rarely - medical reasons where amputating > a > claw/toe is appropriate and in *extremely rare* circumstances it may > be necessary for behavioral reasons (but see the caveat above about > biting). > > > being that I have personally declawed hundreds of cats in my day > > ??? Please explain ??? > > I don't know anyone - even fully qualified vets - that have declawed > "hundreds" of cats. > -- > Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN > An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ > > "If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive." > -- Margaret Atwood ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:248914 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
