There is a beautiful but sad and uplifting story written by Jennifer Conrad, DVM (founder The Paw Project) on the website The Dodo.
She recalls the moment, 14 years ago, that changed her life forever and set her on the path to being a passionate anti-declawing advocate; to work tirelessly to repair the damage paws of botched declawing surgery and to educate people about the truth of cat declawing.
Jennifer Conrad is heavily involved in repairing the paws of captive wild cats in the USA. It never ceases to amaze me, and in equal measure appall me, that people who own these magnificent wild cats can decide to mutilate their paws. It is taking away a significant part of the beauty of these animals which is their athleticism because, not infrequently, they become crippled by the de-clawing operation.
One such example is the African lioness Naala. She received the benefit of paw repair surgery carried out by Jennifer Conrad and her feet were bandaged with a dark green wrap.
The bandages remained on Naala for a week. Most cats, Jennifer says don’t like anything on their paws (don’t we know it) and lionesses are no exception. However, Naala was perfectly content to have her bandages on her paws because it was if they had taken away her constant pain.
Jennifer and her associates tried to get the bandages off but she wouldn’t let them. They had to come off because if they’re left on to long they can cause injury.
The day came to remove the bandages which required sedating and anaesthetising the lioness. On that day Jennifer had a visitor, the Deputy Mayor of West Hollywood; Hernan Molina.
Jennifer must’ve had one of those Eureka moments because in her presence at that time was a declawed lioness who had suffered because of the operation and a legislator, a person who can make law and change things.
Jennifer says that she looked at Naala and at the Deputy Mayor and asked:
“Why don’t we make it illegal to declaw cats in West Hollywood?”
Declawing became illegal in West Hollywood, Los Angeles and in seven other cities in California:
| City | When Banned | Voting | Pop. of City |
| West Hollywood | 2003 | 5/0 | 35,000 |
| Santa Monica | 27/10/2009 | 6/1 | 100,000 |
| San Francisco | 3/11/2009 | 9/2 | 810,000 |
| Beverly Hills | 5/11/2009 | 5/0 | 40,000 |
| Los Angeles | 6/11/2009 | 11/0 | 4 million |
| Berkeley | 10/11/2009 | 9/0 | 125,000 |
| Culver City | 24/11/2009 | 5/0 | 39,000 |
| Burbank | 08/12/2009 | 4/1 | 100,000 |
Now it is time to extend that ban. Please let it happen. Thanks Jennifer for all the fantastic work you do for cats. You’ve removed a lot of pain from their lives.
Please read and comment on her article on The Dodo website and here…
Everyone should be brave and watch the Paw Project film, yes it’s heart breaking in parts for those of us who love all cats. But think of the heart break of the vets like Jennifer, repairing as best they can the paws of cats their colleagues have mutilated, knowing those cats were crippled deliberately and that they can never have their toe ends put back on.
It has some beautiful and uplifting parts too and it’s nice to ‘meet in the flesh’ those wonderful people who are not only working hard to help as many cats as possible, but to educate as many people as possible and to ultimately stop all vets declawing.
We must watch and promote that film no matter how hard we find it!
I am like you Molly. I can’t watch The Paw Project film. It is too horrible for me. Too sad. Declawing is a totally barbaric concept and only humans could have devised it.
I haven’t seen the Paw Project and am scared to, but I already know the practice is barbaric and will certainly tell anyone who agrees with declawing to watch it!
I got in a heated discussion a few Thanksgivings ago with family about my opposition to declawing, even before I knew the truth about the amputation!
I really hope this ends up in the history books and very very soon!!!!
Hi Cat Lady. We are the same. We love Jeniffer’s work. She is a fantastic lady. She deserves all the praise she can get.
At Save Our Paws, we LOVE Dr. Conrad and all the vets who are anti-declawing vets. We love the care Dr. Conrad and others give to these crippled cat, both large and small. There is no way to properly say “Thank you for caring!” and convey just how much it is truly meant. As the SOP Admin, I would like to share articles like these with others. Thank you again for posting this article and helping prevent declawing!
I don’t understand your “No Comment” reply. If you’d like to discuss this via email feel free to email me at Tinax4@live.com
I’m so glad the big cat world has Dr. Conrad!!! Now they can at least live out their days in sanctuaries pain free.