I won't even reply to some of the more absurd comparisons in your post, like comparing being against a surgery like declawing to some of the radical peta policies of releasing animals. You seem to be saying with such comparisons that declawing is *better* for the cat that just leaving them as they are...pretty sad.
> 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 Great comparison. I personally prefer *NOT* to purposely disable my pets. And we don't even completely understand all the ways that claws are important to cats. For instance, full-body stretching while scratching is an important way cats exercise and tone their muscles. How can we possibly know what we are taking away from our cat when we remove their ability to do this effectively? > 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. Knowing that this is a nice cash cow for you does make me question how objective about it you can be. For every vet that does tons of declaws just as a routine surgery, there are many others that have refused to do it as inhumane. Not to mention over 22 countries that have outlawed it. That's hardly something you can attribute to being a peta agenda. > 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. And how many cats did you follow through their entire lives? And compared to a sample group of un-declawed cats? The reason I do not put much faith in what vets say is that 1. this is a money-making surgery for them and 2. they often don't know the full consequences of the surgery over the cat's entire life. We have shelter workers that say they see far more cats turned in for elimination and behavior issues (both with a higher percentage of declawed cats that non) versus cats turned in for scratching. When surveyed, less than 10% of cat owners that had their cats declawed said they would get rid of the cat if they still had claws. We see this as well in all the countries that outlaw declawing...they do not have shelters full of cats that are scratching up the furniture. The fact is that too many people when given the option take the easiest route rather than try and solve the issue first...and that is what I find very unacceptable. > 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. Again, this is why you cannot go by someone's personal experience, because they will slant any issues they see to be attributed to something else. > 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. I'm sure any study I reference you will just say doesn't apply since it doesn't separate kittens from cats. And for every study that shows significant negative aspects of declawing, you can probably find ones that say it doesn't matter. Part of the problem is that true long-term studies of the effects of declawing, particularly behavioral issues, are sadly lacking. But, fine, here's a few I know of, a 1994 study found that in 163 cats that were declawed, over 50 percent had one or more complications immediately after surgery. Of the cats whose progress was followed after surgery, 20 percent had continued complications. In a 1996 study, among 218 cats relinquished to a shelter, more declawed cats than non-declawed cats were reported by owners to have inappropriate elimination (52% versus 29%). In a 2001 study, 39 owners were surveyed up to 5 years after the surgery, 80% of the cats had more than one medical complication following the surgery, 33% developed at least one behavior problem, 15% would not use the litter box and 18% showed an increase in biting. In a national survey of pounds and shelters, 70% of cats turned in for behavioral problems are declawed cats. Here's a site with some additional case studies, a number of them showing the consequences on larger species of cats that were declawed as cubs: http://www.pawproject.com/html/cases.asp > 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 one thing to give your experience and say, I don't think declawing is all that bad, I've not seen cats have all that much trouble with it. But to say someone should just routinely declaw a young cat that hasn't even shown clawing problems yet, just because they don't want to take a chance their furniture might be scratched...I find that really distasteful, to cripple an animal without even trying to problem-solve the issue in more humane ways first. > 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. Well, I would certainly hope anyone that wants to do this surgery to their cat researches it regardless. You will certainly find that the cat fancy is *overwhelming* against this surgery. > 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? Again, all surveys of shelters and pounds have shown that far more cats are given up for elimination or behavior issues (which can be caused by declawing) than for scratching the furniture. You can also look at all the other countries (and in fact, some counties in the US that have outlawed it) to see that this is a specious argument. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:248936 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
