CLAWS ARE ESSENTIAL AND BEAUTIFUL TOO

By Ruth aka Kattaddorra

The paws and claws of cats are exceptionally well made and to those of us who truly love cats, those claws are as beautiful a part of the cat as any other part is.

The way cats claws can retract is wonderful and in my opinion they are more well designed than a human’s fingernails and they are far more important to the cat too than our fingernails are to us.

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Poster by Ruth

Our fingernails protect the ends of our fingers and we use them to scratch with, but that’s about all, although some women like to paint their nails, thinking it looks attractive.

Cats claws, the equivalent to our fingernails, have so many more uses, they are not only for self defence!

They also help the cat to balance when walking and jumping and to exercise his muscles by digging them into a scratching post and having a good stretch. Cats grasp with their claws too and also very important, they scratch an itch. Imagine having no nails to scratch an itch. But we could use our fingers to pick up something to scratch ourselves with, even without our nails. Cats can’t do that.

Imagine a 4 paw declawed cat trying to groom himself or scratch an itch, it must be very frustrating. Bad enough a 2 paw declawed cat trying to groom properly and reach all the nooks and crannies of his fur. Cats use their front claws as a sort of comb.

So who on earth thought up the cruel operation called declawing? Declawing is a very misleading word for the amputation of the cat’s last toe joints. It wasn’t a cat lover who thought it up, that’s for sure.

Many cats and kittens must have suffered horribly in the quest to ‘perfect’ the operation. But there is no way of ‘perfecting’ it because whichever way those healthy toe ends are removed, whether by guillotine, scalpel or laser, the cat is for ever after a deliberately disabled animal.

The nails of a cat are firmly embedded into bone and that is because they were never meant to be removed.

It’s about time the declawing vets and the people who think this premeditated abuse is acceptable, started to realise how wrong they are and to see the beauty and also the practicality of cats claws.

It’s so very easy to trim a cats claws and to teach him to use a scratching post. No excuse is good enough to put a cat through the painful and distressing ordeal of declawing and leave him disabled for life.

In my opinion anyone who will only have a cat in their home if he is declawed, is not a cat lover at all and should look around for another type of pet.

Kattaddorra signature Ruth

Comments for
CLAWS ARE ESSENTIAL AND BEAUTIFUL TOO

Dec 31, 2010 FANTASTIC
by: Bert T

That poster is truly fantastic as it shows exactly the toe joints which are cut or burned off by the vets who do this despicable surgery.

What a difference the healthy paw to the deformed paw.

And at the bottom a simple diagram of where to trim the cats claws instead.

Your posters are INSPIRED Ruth.


Dec 30, 2010 Vets don’t give a damn
by: Anonymous

Yes claws are not only beautiful they are essential and I will never understand how it can be justifiable to remove them from any cat.
Those vets don’t give a damn for cats,that’s for sure.


Dec 29, 2010 Your right Pammy
by: Edward

Ive got myself in a knot.Ive just been and commented on another of Ruths posters and agreed its the best yet but I hadnt seen this one.
Its another that needs printing off huge for July.It says everything in pictures the other best one says it in words.
I wish I was educated man to put my words right.
Ed


Dec 28, 2010 Best yet….
by: pammy marshall

This is your best poster yet Ruthy…
Every part of a cat is beautiful, and they depend on us to speak up for them so that they stay as beautiful and proud as they are…It is the way God made them, so who are we to try and change perfection for our own selfish reasons?????
Thank goodness it is banned in this cat loving country..Wake up America!!!


Dec 27, 2010 It’s criminal to take claws
by: CJ

Sue I’m with you,these smashing posters say all there is to say and I often put links to the articles featuring them here.
I agree that claws are a beautiful part of a cat and even if they weren’t essential what right has anyone to take them away.
It’s assault and armed robbery to take something from another being by force and it’s criminal.


Dec 27, 2010 Another great poster
by: Sue

Ruth your posters say it all,you don’t need words underneath.

I might be speaking out of turn but I’ve got to say this,why don’t you people who use the great articles on PoC to put links to other articles write your own instead.
It’s especially a bit much putting links to other web sites when there’s everything anyone ever needs to know on PoC itself.


Dec 27, 2010 I agree totally
by: Leah (England)

Cats claws ARE beautiful. The way they are designed and what they do is nothing short of miraculous.

Ruth your pictures are absolutely spot on. They show what happens explicitly and if a cat carer can see that and ignore it then they can’t possibly love their cat at all.

I also feel that the structure of a cats claws are like fingers especially where kittens are concerned; they play so much and learn so much during those early weeks. They play fight, play with toys, learn to stalk and hunt, how can anyone declaw them and just stop all that when they’ve only just learned how to use their little toes?

Anyone ‘vet’ who declaws all four paws ought to be struck off! Its bad enough to declaw the fronts but seriously there is absolutely no justification for the back ones! Cats use them to scratch an itch for Gods sake! Its torture if they can’t so quite clearly the vets are torturing them in so many ways! It makes me sick and angry to think about it.

Well done Ruth if the lazy so and so’s can’t be bothered to read then at least your diagrams are all self expanatory.


Dec 26, 2010 Also Look Here
by: Kathleen

https://pictures-of-cats.org/the-damage-caused-by-a-domestic-cats-claws-is-greatly-exaggerated.html

If you cannot tolerate getting a small, shallow scratch now and then, you do not need to be living with a cat. There **may** be some who have genuine medical reasons why they cannot be scratched (though the human medical industry greatly exaggerates this, and these people are actually far more rare than MD’s would have us believe), and for those people, I would say that if they profess to love cats then they should work on their behalf to make the world a better place for them, rather than selfishly declawing one in order to keep him or her in their home. For the rest of the populace, those who simply want everything to be THEIR WAY, enjoy that bubble you are trying to seal yourself into, but don’t mutilate an innocent creature in order to seal him or her in there with you. Life includes a little scrape or scratch here and there. I hope your human kid bites you one day.


Dec 26, 2010 Declawing disables cats
by: Michele S.

If claws weren’t an integral part of the cat they wouldn’t be born with them. Why can’t people just accept that simple fact of life?


Dec 26, 2010 Great article Ruth, and so true!
by: Susan

Here’s another good article that people can print out and distribute, staple to adoption contracts, have on educational tables, or post on community bulletin boards. It’s called “Why Cats Need Claws”

“Claws are involved in almost everything a cat does during her waking hours. In the morning, she digs her claws into her scratching post and pulls against the claws’ resistance to energize and tone her upper body. During playtime, her claws snag flying toys out of the air and hold them in place. When she runs across the house and up the stairs, her claws act like cleats to provide extra traction. When she scales her kitty condo, she uses her claws like miniature mountaineering crampons that let her reach the top with ease.

A cat uses claws to scratch an itch, manipulate catnip mice, grip a narrow catwalk, hoist her body up to a high-up perch, and grab onto a chair for stability during grooming. Claws are even used in self expression; for example, a slight extension of the claws is a subtle way to say “I’m tired of being held and am ready to get down”.

In some circumstances, claws are lifesavers, enabling a cat to climb to safety or thwart an attacker.

All this and much more is lost when a cat is declawed.”

“Why Cats Need Claws” by Gary Loewenthal


Dec 26, 2010 Cats and claws are purrfect
by: Maggie

I love my cats’ claws. They’re all beautiful and the ways they use them are fascinating to me. I often find that the ways cats use their claws can be awefully similar to the ways that we use our fingers. Which has made me believe that a cat’s claws are fingers and nails all blended together to make a very clever and genious retractable tool. Which can be used for defense, exercise, playing, grapping, and all sorts of other things!

Having said that, imagine if you had your fingers taken away? What kind of life would that be? Imagine that, and then make it 10 times worse, and you’ve got the life of a declawed cat. Declawing takes away a tool that the cat’s body, protection, and all else relies on. Without claws a cat cannot be a cat. And I do not understand why vets cannot see this, and why they continue to mutilate cats and remove such a unique and amazing part of a cat’s body. Claws are beautiful and any vet who declaws a cat cannot call themselves a vet.


Dec 26, 2010 Claws are part of a cat
by: Barbara

It infuriates me when I read things like “claws taken out” and the latest one “claws extracted”, it makes me wonder if the people who write those descriptions really believe that is what happens or if they delude themselves deliberately because the truth makes them uncomfortable.
When you look at the diagram of a cat’s paw and see all of the parts that make up the whole it becomes obvious that the claw is much more than a toenail to finish off the end of the paw. In fact the claw is as much part of the paw as the pad. And I wonder if veterinarians, their technicians or even their reception staff who make appointments for declawing procedures ever think about showing clients a diagram like this and explaining what will happen to the cat. Or if their actions are more like a conman who sees a chance to make money from someone stupid and takes it.
But by saying that I am not for one second excusing cat owners (anyone who contemplates declawing must surely think that they “own” the cat) who bundle their cat into a carrier and deliver her to the surgery to have her finger ends amputated. Oh no! The buck stops with the cat carer every time and ignorance is no excuse for what amounts to surgical abuse of a cat. This diagram or umpteen thousand others plus explicit descriptions of declawing are readily available within milliseconds on a Google search.
So my conclusion is that anyone who chooses to declaw a cat deliberately chooses to maltreat that cat and so should be liable for prosecution for cruelty to an animal. Another brilliant article Ruth, thank you, you ARE making a difference.

Barbara avatar


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