I make between $75,000 and $80,000 a year from declawing
I make between $75,000 and $80,000 a year from declawing – so said a veterinarian to Dr. Jennifer Conrad of the Paw Project. He said that he declaws every cat that comes through the door of his butchers shop…sorry surgery. Clearly this monster of a vet does not say anything to his clients about the negative aspects of declawing and how it can and should be avoided. On the contrary, he must highly recommend the operation. It takes under 10 minutes per paw and the charge is between $400 and $8001.
As far as I am concerned this vet and others like him are criminals. The manner in which he treats cats as money-making fodder takes the veterinary profession into the realms of criminality.
This person is totally unsuited to the profession of veterinary surgeon. Is anyone doing checks on the character and personality of people who want to qualify as a vet? If not they should because at the end of the day it is about ethics and personal standards.
I know I have gone on and on about this but there is no way the American culture of declawing cats is going to stop unless the vets are forced to stop. It is just too lucrative and for the vast majority of vets making a good profit comes before cat welfare.
Mutilating cats for the convenience of the owner is the backbone of the veterinary business in America. It’s the bread and butter that pays the school fees and keeps the air conditioning running during those globally warmed, blistering summers.
American veterinarians (bar a few) are in mass denial of the fact that they have torn up their sacred oath and totally undermined the purpose for their existence, which is to improve the health of animals in their care.
Some vets are stepping out of line. They see the light:
“I finally just asked myself, ‘Why am I hurting cats?'” he remembers. “There’s no moral way to justify it. It’s a violation of the oath we took.” (Aubrey Lavizzo, who I believe is a Colorado vet)
Yes, I have been saying that for about 5 years as have many other anti-declaw campaigners. Why did it take Aubrey so long to understand that what he was doing was morally unjustifiable? At least he stopped doing it. He is now one of the leading campaigners to ban it in Colorado.
Apparently, behind the scenes there is a “a mounting pile of distressing posts on veterinarian discussion boards”1 about declawing complications, pain management and how the operations should be done.
Alan Prendergast writing in the Dallas Observer states:
declawing has become a deeply divisive issue among practitioners
This shocks me because there is no way declawing can be divisive because it is obviously wrong. All vets should be on the same side. The side of curing and healing animals including cats. Declawing achieves the opposite.
No one knows how much a cat suffers from acute pain after the operation. Vets don’t know. They guess and some don’t administer proper pain medication. It’s legalised cat torture at some veterinary surgeries.
Amongst all the bloody mess of the declawing industry there may be a ray of light. Apparently, the state of Colorado have their sights on a statewide ban next year with the process being kick started by Dr Jennifer Conrad’s feature film about declawing that is due to be screened nationally in the near future.
Note: Why did I write about declawing today? Because it is a news item. The news bit is the releasing of The Paw Project film. I don’t get fun out of writing about declawing believe me.
Ref: (1) dallasobserver.com
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That damn vet who declawed that kitten is the lowest of the low! How dare she be angry at the owners outrage!! I would show her what anger was if I had the chance!
I hate with all my heart anyone who is involved with de-clawing (unless they are of course against it).
I just think its all reached a disgusting, evil all time low with the vets in America and Canada when they have the nerve to brag about how much they earn from de-clawing. They are sick butchers who are consumed with greed. They have absolutely no morals so deserved to be ‘American bashed’
Rotten to the core scum of the earth vet boasting of how he mutilates every cat he gets his grubby mitts on.
Well I agree the people who pay those butchers like him are as bad as those butchers are.
Have they got no minds to think for their stupid selves that claws are a part of cats and they need them.
God I’d like to thump some sense into their thick brains.
Yes indeed. How many people know enough or have enough conviction or courage to make their own decisions. A lifetime of watching soap operas and football is not a way to learn something useful. Ultimately it is the moral responsibility of the owner to ensure the well-being of their cat. To do that effectively they have to take the time to learn something.
Regarding ” Cat owners look to vets for leadership on cat health”, but vets let them down, and it is only a matter of time before intelligent cat owners start to look at their vet in a different light.
Those people surely wouldn’t hand their child over for surgery without asking the doctor exactly what it was and the possible complications, so why do they do that to their cats!
The old adage: cats are second class citizens and worse: non-sentient beings. They just don’t understand that cats are intelligent, feeling beings. It amazes me that some people – many people – still believe that. Or they don’t apply their minds to that.
Some vets (my vet for example) are excellent and really do give real guidance and leadership on matters of cat welfare and health. Yet, many don’t. A lot of cat owners don’t really think for the themselves. They don’t have the confidence to challenge a vet or ask challenging questions. They take it as a truth whatever the vet says to them. That is why I say the vet leads the relationship on matters of cat health. He must. He knows more and there is a relationship of trust. The vet is in a position of trust just like a doctor or lawyer.
Declawing a person’s cat is a breach of that trust. It is much more but regarding the relationship between cat owner and vet it is a breach of trust.
I agree that intelligent cat owners challenge and reject somethings but how many are there? About 25% of cat owners declaw their cats in the USA. These are the unthinking people.
The problem here is that people are so stupid and unthinking that they rush their cats to these butchers.
If they had any regard for their pets they stay away from those heartless greedy business Vets. They themselves cause this horrible situation.
Yes, it is a combination, a partnership between cat owner and vet. The change is the hands of the vets, I feel. They lead this partnership. That is my personal opinion. They have made declawing acceptable and indoctrinated cat owners into believing it is OK to declaw. Cat owners look to vets for leadership on cat health.
I have to agree Harvey, I know most anti declaw people blame the vets who declaw, but honestly, the very thought of taking a cat’s claws away fills us with horror, so why does it not Americans and Canadians?
Can they not think for themselves?
Even if as some of those people thought it was ‘only’ the claws, surely that would be bad enough!
Why get a cat if they don’t like claws?
Yes vets have to take part of the responsibility for this legalised cruelty but the people who hand their kittens over to those butchers are equally to blame. Some of them know full well the seriousness of the surgery but their furniture is more important than their cats health and quality of life.
It makes me so MAD!
It has to be banned worldwide!
How awful, can’t believe anyone could be so casually cruel and admit to it. It’s all about greed for money, the very people you should be able to trust with your cats are the last ones you actually can trust.
It’s so lucrative that I don’t know if it can ever be banned country wide.
It reminds me of my nursing days when surgeons performed what they called a “whipple”. It entailed removing small portions of cancer from nearly every body organ of terminal cancer patients. It was MAJOR, MAJOR surgery and did absolutely nothing but cause the patient even more pain and line the pockets of the docs. It went on for years and still exists on a much smaller scale.
Thanks Dee. Like every facet of life, medicine is a way of making money. I just heard that in the UK the divide between the rich and the poor is getting bigger and approaching the same level of Victorian times. The world is becoming ever more dominated by the rich and the exploiters. The idea, years ago, was to create a fairer society. Clearly governments and the people have failed.
Its ultimately economics that is fueling the “DE-CLAWING” cat Industry in America.I would blame the “Cat Owners” the most since they are the people who take their pets to the Veterinarian and its not the Veterinarian who comes to every home coaxing owners to de-claw their pets.Remember it takes a lot of education and expenditure to become a veterinarian doctor in U.S.A and the easiest way to earn would be through “De-clawing”‘ 75,000-80,000 dollars/year is a real big income and no vet would like to stop the inflow of such easy earnings.Unless “DE-CLAWING” is totally banned then it makes no sense singling out a single doctor just because he stated his enormous income as there are many like him out there busy minting money from “DE-CLAWING”.
Yes it’s a horrible and heart breaking topic to write about Michael and some people hate us for writing about it, so well done for this article.
We can’t let it rest, we joined this battle around six years ago now and have been attacked many times for telling the truth and also been told it’s none of our business as we don’t live in the USA.
But the suffering of cats IS our business and PoC has saved many cats claws which is good, but it’s not good that it’s still happening every day! That some vets are promoting it!
I was just reading an article earlier about a vet who declawed a kitten while spaying her, she was trying to justify herself and was annoyed the client wasn’t happy about it!
http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-dept/small-animal-dept/facing-up-to-the-past-after-an-accidental-surgery.aspx
That poor little cat suffering her lifetime because of that cruel person who declaws so many cats she just does it routinely without even thinking or checking the consent form!
I hate vets who declaw and I despise people who hand their kittens over for declawing without finding out what it really means, they should not have any cat in their power, they are ignorant and irresponsible!
I for one won’t rest until declawing is banned worldwide and the smirk taken off the faces of all the vets who make money out of their cruelty to cats.
This is the kind of vet who I want to be attacked by the so called crazy animal activists. I’d love this vet to personally be defingered as nought but pure revenge.
Thanks god for the ‘crazy’ activists. They can take this vet for a propper ride. I believe one should always publish every name and preferrably address and all contact details of the animal abusers in the hopes that they get serious life threatening retribution and feel sorry they ever did it if they are lucky enough to live long enough to be sorry.
I would to name and shame him/her. I have done this. I get accused of “American bashing” but my response is that this is a news item today and the problem is not mine but the people doing the declawing. If American vets don’t want to be criticised they should stop doing things that attract criticism. Americans are very patriotic. Perhaps overly so.
I am looking forward to The Paw Project film release. I would like to see some more declawing bans being implemented next year. There was a spate of bans about 2 years ago but it dried up. All in California, which is a more enlightened state.