By Christine Harris
JJ was a cat who started biting after being declawed. He was such a danger to the owner’s kids that the woman had to either rehome him or euthanize him. My brother took him in. The cat bit my mom while she was visiting. She told him to “shoo!” and waved her hand to scare him away from the door. Within a day or so she required IV antibiotics in the emergency department because the bite was deep and appeared infected.
JJ started having more issues when my brother took in another cat who’d been abandoned. When my brother found he was travelling too much and didn’t have anyone to look after his cats, we took JJ in and had to keep him separate from other cats.
We rehomed JJ with my aunt who’s kids were grown. When he was covered with a blanket, JJ bit her grandson who’d been warned to leave the kitty alone. JJ lived with her for several years until he died of old age.
JJ’s original owner could have saved money by not declawing him. He might have been able to stay in his original home and not cost taxpayers money for biting my mom if he’d never been declawed in the first place. This issue is also one of consumer protection, public health, reducing costs as well as ethical concerns and accountability of the veterinary industry in North America.
All homeless cats deserve to get adopted, but did you know that declawing reduces possible homes for cats waiting to be adopted? 14.5% of adoptable declawed cats were listed as NOT suitable for homes with young children vs. 8.64% of non declawed cats (ref: using data crunched from http://www.Petfinder.com March 11, 2013). Some are abandoned.
Such a pretty cat who looks for the world as though he wants to be part of everything but how can he with those obviously deformed paws? He must be in constant pain and scare all the time that someone will hurt him and he can’t defend himself so he gets in first with his teeth.
Thank God you didn’t send him to a shelter and you understood his desperate need to behave as he did because some unfeeling person mutilated him 🙁