Declaw Vets And The Dilemma Of Their Clients
By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
This article was inspired by Cal who is totally against declawing, but her excellent cat vet, even though she is against it too, will declaw cats for clients who demand it even after she has tried to educate them as to the seriousness of the surgery and the many alternatives to it….

Declawing Dilemma. Poster collage by Ruth aka Kattaddorra.
…My first reaction was that I wouldn’t go to a vet who declawed, not under any circumstances and I’d tell her why. But on second thoughts, supposing there was no other vet in the area, who apart from declawing was an excellent cat vet. What would I do? Could I trust a vet who breaks her oath to cause no animal to suffer?
It’s easy to say no I couldn’t, from a country where we have never declawed cats even when it was legal here, but supposing I lived in the USA or Canada?
We have to put our own cats first and very often cats get ill quickly, just as they usually recover quickly with prompt treatment. In an emergency especially we don’t want to have to travel many miles to see our vet, we are just desperate to get our cats to the person who can help them.
So would I risk upsetting my vet by challenging her about why she declaws cats? To be honest I just don’t know.
Maybe it would be better to realise that she won’t stop declawing while it’s legal even though if one vet after another started refusing to declaw, eventually there would be no vet left who agreed to do it.
Thinking about it though I don’t think that will happen because while clients threaten that it’s declaw, relinquishment or even death, vets will choose to declaw even though any caretaker who threatens that shouldn’t be allowed within 10 miles of any cat. They are not fit cat caretakers.
So it seems that reluctant declaw vets are not going to stop declawing while it’s legal, even though they know how wrong it is! Is it better to simply not challenge those vets but to keep on educating cat caretakers while working towards a ban on declawing?
Only a ban will stop the vets who are happy to declaw, the ones who push neuter/declaw packages for kittens or who advertise declawing with discount.
They are the vets to avoid more than the ones who feel pressured into declawing. They are the vets I would never entrust the care of our cats health to. I can well understand the dilemma of the cat lovers in the USA and Canada.
What do you do in those countries, does your vet declaw? Have you challenged him/her?
What would people do where declawing is banned, if it wasn’t banned and it happened in their country?