On Dec 24, 2007 11:43 AM, Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I know that many people consider pets "pert of the family" but I'm not sure > if that's as common as some people would like to think. I know it probably > seems backward but a cat that's gotten declawed has already been shown a > level of dedication I don't think a lot of cat owners actually have.
I disagree. For many people, it's "easier" to pay for the declaw surgery than spend the time to train the cat appropriate behavior. People tend to take shortcuts because time is often more important than money. Of course, just turning the cat out on the street is usually the laziest approach, unfortunately. A dedicated pet owner will spend time working with their cats to create boundaries in a way that the cat understands and will encourage the cat to learn appropriate behaviors. It's a sad fact that there are a lot of irresponsible pet owners out there. There are also a lot of well-meaning pet owners who simply don't understand their pet(s) - they wrongly assume that the motivations for a pet are similar to the motivations for a person (they also wrongly assume that cats and dogs have the same motivations - they absolutely do not!). There is always room for more education. Mary Jo mentioned the CFA blanket ban on declawing so it's probably worth noting that TICA (The International Cat Association) does not prohibit declawing and does not penalize show cats that have been declawed. However, the sentiment within TICA is that declawing is generally inappropriate and unnecessary. For example, TICA tries to encourage breeders to spay/neuter kittens before they go to a new home since that will reduce the chance of the pet owner declawing the kitten (if the pet owner handles the spay/neuter, there is a chance that some vets will be amenable to declawing at the same time). TICA works hard to educate pet owners about the behavior and responsibility of their cats. A never-ending battle it seems. -- 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:249021 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
