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!
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!
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.
Big declawed cats can never be safeky returned to the wild. So what happens then?
Thank you Michael for writing this article! It is past time for it to extend all over the country. West Hollywood has fewer residents, then, than where I currently live. If Dr. Serena, doctor who xrayed Mollie and euthanized Maggie last week, wasn’t a month out from delivering her own little bundle she might consider saying no to declawing. I asked if she made a lot of money and she said between her and Dr. Nick they did maybe half a dozen declaws in the last one year. They are the only clinic that educates prior to any surgery. I will continue to work on getting her to say no to declaw.
Some how we all have to get the law makers to agree this is doing much more harm than good and make it illegal.
I admire you for trying to convince your vet to stop declawing. Mind you, she should not require convincing because it is obviously against the oath and cat health and welfare. At least they educate prior to surgery.
Oh Tina.
Maggie had to be PTS?
I’m so sorry.
R.I.P. sweet Maggie.
So true Michael!! Not that she doesn’t know what the implications are, more just helping her say it’s ok to say no. I’m being gentle and told her of the city and states that have banned it. I told her it would be great if she were the first vet to stand up in the state against it. Dee, what is PTS?
PTS is put to sleep.
You wrote that Maggie was euthanized last week.
That means Maggie is dead.
Ok. My brain isn’t fully functional yet. Yes she was PTS one week ago. I had her declawed 11 years ago and recently began learning of declawing painful =facts. She also has IBD which I could not get back under control. She was a sick and hurting girl and I just couldn’t justify leaving her in pain so I was h u mane and let her run over the rainbow bridge.
No Comment.
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.
Yes this story is both sad and uplifting, I have commented on the DoDo page and hope many more people will too, because as Jennifer says:
‘Please comment so that they continue to promote the Paw Project. Thanks’
It’s very easy to comment using your facebook log in.
My comment:
We in England where our vets never declawed even before it was made illegal, are huge admirers of Dr Jennifer Conrad and all the other Paw Project vets. I personally didn’t know until 6 years ago that the declawing of cats large and small was common in the USA, in fact almost routine for domestic kittens at the time of neutering. Even the people here who don’t particularly like cats are shocked and horrified to hear that this mutilation of them happens, it’s just unthinkable to us! Also incredible to us that the very people who train to help animals would break their oath to cause no animal to suffer. Declawing causes suffering! I co-founded The International Coalition Against Declawing along with my sister Barbara Bates and we have almost 500 members now who are educating as to the cruelty of declawing and will go on doing so until it is banned! I have watched the Paw Project film, it touched me deeply and I urge anyone who thinks declawing is acceptable, to watch it and learn the truth! One day Dr Conrad and her colleagues will stop this cruelty but meanwhile every day more cats are doomed to suffer from declawing by the vets who continue to mutilate cats paws. The Paw Project vets can ease the suffering of the cats they can help by repairing their paws, although they can never put the toe ends of those cats back onto their paws, they are gone forever in the trash and many more cats are living/will be doomed to live, a life of physical and/or mental pain until declawing is stopped! England will celebrate that day along with The Paw Project vets and volunteers.
Great comment Ruth. I commented too. I am such an admirer of Jennifer. She is a real hero of mine. It is so hard to battle against the establishment and colleagues.
She is surrounded by vets – her colleagues – who declaw cats for profit.
Yes she went out on a limb and now more vets are starting up Paw Project branches and some vets are stopping declawing, surely one day in the not too distant future it will be consigned to the history books where it belongs.
At one time it felt quite hopeless but now I think I might still be around to see the end of it, I hope so.
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!!!!
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.