1. Grooming
It is rarely if ever mentioned but a domestic cat uses their claws as part of their grooming routine. Every cat needs and desires to be well groomed. A coat in good condition is vital for their well-being. For temperature control, cleanliness, waterproofing and for controlling scent-signalling. As a consequence, cats are fastidious self-groomers attending to their personal hygiene for a considerable part of each day.
Scratching themselves is part and parcel of the process. Scratching gets rid of skin irritations, dislodges dead hairs, and removes tangles. A human grooming their cat cannot substitute the real thing entirely.
Cats do use their teeth to groom but they can’t reach their neck, head, mouth and ears with their teeth. They need their precious claws for these regions.
2. Climbing
Climbing is an integral part of feline behaviour. It is as natural as walking down the sidewalk for humans. It is second nature to them. Although full-time indoor cats don’t need their claws for self-defence, they do need them to climb cat trees which are an item of cat furniture which should be in all cat owner’s homes. Without claws it is much harder for a cat to climb. On some surfaces it will be near impossible. To removed claws also removes a significant part of the pleasurable activities enjoyed by cats. This is unfair and an indirect abuse.
It may be worse than that. Attempts to climb may lead to failure. Climbing to a window ledge may prove hazardous with the declawed cat falling to the floor.
3. Self-defence
It goes without saying that declawed cats should be kept indoors. Outdoors they can’t use their claws to defend themselves. Survival for an abandoned declawed cat would be impossible.
4. Biting
Declawed cats tend to bite in compensation for the loss of their claws. They bite their owners more often than non-declawed cats.
5. Litter tray
Declawed cats are far more likely to avoid cat litter as it hurts. This leads to a seven times increase in inappropriate elimination. Should this be the case it would prove that the cat is suffering from long-term pain due to the declawing operation.
6. Botched
I have said it before but a large percentage of declawing operations are botched by hurried veterinarians (15 minutes to declaw) which leave bone shards in the paw and worse. This leads to permanent pain. The pain is not readily evident to cat owners who might say that their cat is fine. How do they know? Perhaps they find out when their cat develops arthritis in old age through a distorted gait (to avoid the pain).
7. First requirement
The first requirement of cat owner and veterinarian alike is to promote and protect the cat’s welfare and health. Declawing fatally undermines that duty and goal. Declawing for non-therapeutic reasons (99% of the time) is a breach of the veterinarian’s oath. They have forsaken their sworn oath in chasing financial profit. This is unethical and immoral. It is a breach of trust.
8. Criminal conduct
In 38 countries at least, declawing for non-therapeutic purposes is a crime. A strange thought that but one which highlights the anomalous nature of the operation. It should never have been invented in the 1950s in the US.
9. Misnomer
‘Declawing’ is a deliberate mislabelling of the operation as it implies that the claws only are removed. Wrong. The last phalange of each toe from the distal joint is amputated. It is 10 partial amputations of the toes of the forepaws. This is further unethical veterinary behavior.
10. Onychectomy
The professional, technical name for declawing is onychectomy. It is an old Greek name which adds respectability to the operation. The word means ‘nail-cutting-out’ (nail excision). This too is a misnomer as a lot more than the nail is cut out. It is a veterinarians deception to fool the public into thinking the operation is acceptable.
