by Finn Frode
(Copenhagen, Denmark)

Picture added by Michael (PoC Admin) - photo by flikr (photographer's username at Flickr)
I was shocked by the recent article on declawing in the United States (new window). To me this practice seems absolutely disgusting and I'm surprised that some veterinarians display such poor ethics. Thanks a lot to Michael for bringing up the subject.
Now if getting a scratch really presents such a serious "zoonotic risk" for the cat owner that it could justify declawing, then what about bites? Deep cat bites can cause much more serious infections in humans than superficial scratches ever will.
Would the American Veterinary Medical Association recommend that besides the declawing, the cat should also have all its teeth extracted?
I hope not. Living with a cat means living with the slight danger of an occasional scratch or bite, although in most cases only the furniture will suffer. If you can't accept that, you're probably better off without a cat.
Fin Frode
See Declawing Cats for links to lots more.
Photo: published under an Attribution 2.0 Generic creative commons license (cropped as allowed). This cat is going to fight back!