> fyi~ just something from the American Veterinary Medical Association > official policy on Declawing of domestic cats(below). This is from the > AVMA and I would belief it a hell of a lot more than some lady with a > web site and an opinion.
Well, it's hardly just "some lady". There are many sites on the web, from very knowledgeable people in many cases, including ones by *other* vets that discourage declawing. Here for instance is the CFA statement on declawing from their health committee after a review of all data from the CVMA, AVMA, SPCA, etc. http://www.cfainc.org/articles/health/declawing.html > "There is no scientific evidence that declawing leads to behavioral > abnormalities when the behavior of declawed cats is compared with that > of cats in control groups." There are also a great deal of people that disagree with this statement as inaccurate and misleading. What there isn't is scientific consensus on it...there is data that goes both ways, and some of the studies that have shown there is no difference have been shown to have flaws (some mentioned in the CFA statement above.) Also, you will find statements about declawing from other national vet organizations (such as in the UK) taking quite a different stance. Yet certainly their vets are not any less educated than ours? Also note that AVMA themselves say the surgery should only be done as a last resort...something that is clearly being argued against here. So you can't always take everything they state as doctrine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:248978 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
