by Ruth
(England)
The first part is a commentary on a declawing poll that is on another website. The second part gives you a chance to vote on declawing using this site’s poll.
Poster by Ruth
The article with the poll was written by someone whose ex-husband gave her an ultimatum years ago, that the family cat had either to be declawed or go to a new home.
This is the article. (opens in a new page)
I know what I would have chosen to do and it wouldn’t have been the cat who needed a new home!
But she had the cat declawed.
She says he hasn’t suffered but she wouldn’t do it again now so much more is known about the behaviour of cats.
Well I hope she’s right and that her cat isn’t suffering in silence now he’s older, as so many do.
There is an on-going declawing poll at the end of the article.
The options and the votes are:
It’s fine…..23%
It’s acceptable only as a last resort…..23%
It’s never acceptable…..27%
I think it should be illegal…..35%
It doesn’t add up to 100% for some reason, but of the 612 votes so far well over half the voters think declawing is not acceptable.
It’s good to see only just over a fifth think it’s fine, but to me that’s still too many!
There are lots of comments too, mostly against declawing although there are a few who obviously think their furniture is more important than their cat’s health and welfare.
It’s fine
Either these people don’t know or don’t care that declawing is major surgery which can cause many physical and/or mental problems to cats.
They think taking the easy lazy way out and having kittens declawed is acceptable.
These are probably people who look upon cats as possessions rather than family.
It’s acceptable only as a last resort
What is a last resort to these people? Do they agree with vets who declaw that it keeps cats in their homes?
How wrong they are!
They obviously haven’t done any research on Rescue Shelters and the number of declawed cats in them I’m sure, nor do they know that many more declawed cats are killed as unadoptable.
Last resort according to the AVMA guidelines is that declawing is for serious scratching behaviour, but they don’t enforce their policy.
It’s never acceptable
These people are right but why didn’t they vote that it should be illegal? I think probably because as we’ve heard so many times, they don’t want another law.
But why should they be afraid of a law to protect animals from abuse?
There are some laws many of us don’t like but we realise they are for a reason. Who could begrudge a law to protect cats from unscrupulous vets who make dollars from declawing them? Who could begrudge a law to stop those vets advertising the supposedly last resort surgery for young kittens?
I think it should be illegal
These are the people who truly do love cats and know that a law is much needed to protect them from the legalised abuse called declawing, which is done by vets who break their oath to cause no animal to suffer.
I voted that it should be illegal and I hope one day it WILL be illegal worldwide!
There is still time for you to vote, please do and vote with compassion.
Part 2 — Update: 15th March 2012 — Michael has added a poll of our own. It is just below this text. There are three options. The first and second are obvious. The middle one is a compressed version of the AVMA policy on declawing cats (my commentary) – see also the AVMA policy page. I think this PoC poll is more accurate because the “last resort” reason on the other poll is too wide and loose. Also making declawing illegal and it being unacceptable are very similar viewpoints.
SORRY – DUE TO THE PASSAGE OF TIME THIS POLL HAS STOPPED WORKING. IT WAS HOSTED BY A COMPANY WHO DECIDED TO DELETE IT! NICE. THANKS FOR VISITING THE PAGE THOUGH.
I tried to vote, but couldn’t. I would have voted that it is cruelty, and should be illegal. I did have a ploydactyl cat that had to have ONE claw removed because it got stuck in everything, and the toe fractured because the cat pulled away really hard, and couldn’t walk on that foot. He was fine after the fractured toe with its “super claw” was removed. Other than that one claw, I would never ever have this “operation” done on any cat, nor would I ever adopt a declawed cat.
Looking better now:
883 have voted
17% it’s fine
17% only last resort
21% never acceptable
52% it should be illegal
Michael’s poll here is even better , 138 say it should be illegal
and that is 100% of votes
Great. I have cleaned up the poll on this page by the way and it still works and if you click on the view button you’ll see that there are 140 votes saying that declawing should be illegal. That is probably because most visitors to PoC are enlightened cat lovers.