> I found this site about declawing, while just like any other site it > is how the author wanted it to be and the author didn't have the > education in the field that I do
And I could just as easily give you a site that is by someone with *more* knowledge in the field than this person, there are several websites and articles by vets and other vet techs that advise against it. For every person like this that says, I've not seen problems with it, there are people like me who have had kitten declawed and see their personalities change, or have seen cats recover badly, etc. So what's the point? Only ones that agree with your position are okay and worth listening to, the rest of us are just wackos that don't know what we are talking about. For every study that you can give that says declawing is okay, I can give you another that shows negative results (I already quoted about 4 of those which you basically just poo-pooed away.) Sites that want to rationalize declawing conveniently only mention studies that support their position (and the reverse is generally true as well...again, the simple fact is there just isn't enough conclusive data on the issue to say for sure one way or the other.) >Again you keep thinking I am all for this and I am not and I dont fucking know >any other way to tell you that and have you actually understand it. For someone that is not "all for this" you sure have gone to incredible lengths to argue for this surgery, to the extent of coming up with totally unfounded conclusions about the positive effects it can have for the cat. If you really expect people to think you are not "all for this" then perhaps the next time the topic comes up you should not reply the way you did originally which essentially was "if you have furniture you are worried about and your cat is still a kitten, go for it". This is not the statement of someone that thinks the procedure should *only* be done if the person is going to get rid of the cat should they not be able to prevent scratching, that is practically encouraging someone to do it. I don't disagree with your statement that *if* someone is planning to have it done, younger is better (although still not without risk)....I just personally would rather put my efforts towards educating someone in all the other ways to prevent scratching problems, and that declawing is not an appropriate solution to such issues, than just saying, well they'll do it anyway, so why bother trying to convince them otherwise. Many people *would* think twice about doing it if given all the information, but that very often does not happen, and it's just done as a matter of routine. As Helen Keller said, there are few evils worse in this world than apathy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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:248997 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
