Anti-declaw campaigner is cyber-bullied and trolled

Lori who, as I understand it, owns and manages the website City the Kitty is being cowardly cyber bullied. Through her website, Lori passionately fights against the declawing of cats. She is a brilliant advocate for respecting the cat and for cat welfare.

Note: I am not sure if Lori is her real name but I will use the name in this article. I guess she quite understandably wants to remain anonymous for her own safety.

It is not easy being an outspoken critic of declawing in the USA because most American vets support declawing. By stealth and subterfuge, their association the AVMA also supports it.

As an anti-declaw advocate who gets noticed as Lori does you are bound to ruffle the feathers of big business and let’s not fool ourselves, declawing is big, bread and butter business for veterinarians. This leads to nasty cyber bullying. The will not relinquish it.

A good aspect of this is that at least Lori can be reassured that her committed work is being noticed by pro-declawers. They are nervous about her website. They see the site as a genuine force against declawing.

But Lori admits that she is having a tough time being trolled. She says that trolls comb through her posts and try and trip her up to undermine her. I must say she defends herself admirably. The trolls don’t succeed but nonetheless it is upsetting to be attacked all the time when you doing a great job in the furtherance of cat welfare throughout America. She should be praised. I, and many other people, do praise her but there is a hard-care of pro-declawers in America profiting from the declawing operation who want to stop her.

Lori questioned the integrity of the President of the New York State Veterinary Medical Society (NYSVMS), Susan Wylegala. She is absolutely correct to question leading veterinarians. This is because they consistently say that whether a cat is declawed or not should be in the hands of the vet in conjunction with the client. The leaders state that vets have a duty to fully explain what declawing means. But vets do not explain what declawing really is. They mislead clients and this leads to the vast majority of declawing operations. All veterinary medical associations in my view say that declawing is a last resort operation and yet their vets (the members) often make it a first option operation in complete contrast to their professed declarations.

Because Lori questioned President NYSVMS in her article: Does the NYSVMS President Walk the Talk? she was cyber bullied. She is unsure who is trolling her. It seems likely that it is someone in, or associated, with the veterinary profession. It may even be a vet and if that is the case it is probably in breach of their code of practice which does not mean much because vets routinely breach their oath and code of ethics in declawing cats.

First the troll questioned her credentials and knowledge in supporting the very important bill going through the NY state legislature to ban declawing statewide.

The bill is common sense based. Anyone with common sense can see that the bill should enacted unless of course you are vet who is motivated by easy bucks and a disregard for animal welfare and their oath.

Also Lori states that she does seek the advice of vets when does her research.

On another occasion the trolls wheeled out the old cliche: the lives of rescue cats are saved by the declawing operation. What the pro-declawers are saying is that people would not adopt a rescue cat unless he/she is declawed. This is simply incorrect and misleading.

Often declawed cats are returned because of behavioural issues and Lori makes the point that in the California cities where declawing has been banned there has been a decline in the number of shelter cats.

The cyber bullies deny that declawing makes a lot or money for vets. This is clearly misleading too. The raison d’être of declawing in the USA is money, money, money. It has nothing to do with cat welfare.

Interestingly Lori mentions that one vet, Dr Mitsie Vargas, who has stopped declawing has found that her revenue has increased by 10%! She is attracting new clients. When a veterinarian does not declaw it tells the world that they are genuinely concerned about animal welfare. This is the best advert and promotion for their veterinary practice. The converse it true. Vets who declaw are telling the world that they are disinterested in animal welfare.

On another occasion Lori said that “declawing is banned in most of the rest of the world”. What she meant to say was that in all countries other than America and Canada declawing is either banned or totally ignored – it is off the radar is nearly all countries of the world and therefore does not need to be banned in these countries.

Of course the nasty troll said that around 30 countries where it is banned amounts to 14% of all countries which is not that entire world.

Yes, but as mentioned most countries don’t need to ban it. The UK is one of those countries. It is not directly banned in the UK. The operation would be considered an abuse of the cat and cat cruelty and therefore falls foul of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Most people in the UK have not heard of cat declawing.

You can read Lori’s full article on cyber bullying on this page. For my part I commend you and I support you. This website has 300 page or more on declawing (please use the custom search facility above to find them). I am as passionate as you about banning it. It is a stain on the American culture. It should never have happened. Some crazy vet dreamt up the idea of declawing in the 1950s as a way to make money.