By Anonymous
I live in the U.S. where, until recently, most of us were in the dark about the true nature of cat declaw.
It was a very common practice 16 years ago – all vets performed the surgery, it was done frequently & no one ever questioned it.
I was under the impression that the claws were just pulled out somehow. Who would have thought that they actually had to cut off the ends of your cats fingers?!?!
I mean, any practice so brutal would & should have been countered with astounding public protests by animal rights groups everywhere!
While I agree that I should have asked more questions & looked into the practice of declaw before having it done, I partially blame the vets & people already in the know for not coming forward & educating the public.
I had my 16 year old kitty declawed along with his brother (now deceased) because I lived in an apartment at the time & they destroyed the carpet.
I had to either have them declawed or give them up. I knew they were going to live strictly indoors so I was never concerned about them not being able to defend themselves.
I found out about the true nature of declaw only a few short years ago & now am dealing with the guilt of having had my 16 year old kitty (& several cats that owned me before him who have since deceased) declawed when he was just a kitten.
When I actually LOOKED at his fingers, I saw that indeed, his last digits had been removed. My older cat has a young brother & sister now whom I refuse to declaw. I am trying to decide whether to have them fitted with Softclaws so that they cannot hurt my older cat. I have trained them to use scratching posts & cat trees so they do not tear up my furniture. They love to climb but it’s not really fair to my older cat when they wrestle…
Regardless of the hate you encounter for this site, please keep it up. Perhaps there are a few people out there who may be considering declaw.
PLEASE DON’T DO IT – you will regret it some day! Unlike 15-20 years ago, we have options now. Have your cats fitted with Softclaws (www.softclaws.com) or any other brand of cat claw caps instead of declawing them!
Declawing my cat 16 years ago is my biggest regret…to Declawing Cats