Judgement Day For Declawing Vets
Judgement day is coming soon! Another of a growing number of non declawing vets is prepared to take a stand:
‘PAW PROJECT – it’s a growing thing! Dr. Stephanie Globerman is the new Director of Paw Project-Georgia, the most recent chapter in the Paw Project movement! We are proud to have them on our team of passionate advocates striving for change! Besides making the world a better place for cats, Dr. Globerman runs an all-feline animal hospital, Paws Whiskers & Claws, in Marietta, GA’
It’s good to see more non declawing vets speaking out at long last and joining the Paw Project in their practice cities to educate people about the cruel declawing of cats.
Poster by Ruth aka Kattaddorra
Would that one day the scenario in the poster would come true and every vet who ever declawed a cat was tried and sentenced. The evidence of the cruelty and the dreadful consequences to cats is building up, they would all be found guilty without a doubt!
Unfortunately it seems that studies of x-rays and the repair surgery on the mutilated paws of cats are being done on cats in Rescue Shelters, or like Tina’s Mollie now with a home, but once adopted from a Shelter.
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How could anyone ever trace the vet who performed the declawing in the first place? It must be almost impossible, because despite declawing vets saying the surgery keeps cats in their homes, it doesn’t! Many people have given up on their cats and relinquished them to a Shelter or turned then out when the physical and/or mental problems from the declawing have manifested.
We now have this shocking truth from Paw Project Utah too, they say: ‘We have some preliminary study data and the results are SHOCKING!!!
- Out of 29 declawed cats analyzed in Utah shelters, 66% have left over P3 fragments from declaws being performed improperly!
- 33% of these 29 cats have more than 5 fragments!
- 45% of these 29 cats have at least one fragment that is more than 5mm!
- 28% of these 29 cats have a declaw that was performed 100% improperly meaning that a large 5mm fragment remains on all declawed toes!’
So, how many more cats have been improperly declawed? How many cats have suffered pain all their lives and died without anyone knowing? Will some ‘owners’ (I say owners not caretakers because caretakers do not pay someone to mutilate their cat) who had a cat declawed, step forward and have their cats paws x-rayed and the findings showing bone fragments, sue the vet who did the surgery?
They should, because if a surgeon had botched surgery on the feet of those people they would soon be talking about suing for malpractice!
There IS no way to declaw a cat ‘properly’ but it seems many vets have attempted to anyway and failed, thus causing pain and distress to thousands of cats because of botched surgery which should never ever have been performed at all!
Ruth so shocking and so so sad it breaks my heart when I think of all those darling cats suffering in silence in utter agony, God I hate people who do that both vets and owners. Bu after reading Dr Doubs interview is it no wonder when there isn’t any training for this in Vets school? those awful cutters, pliers whatever they are they certainly aren’t for declawing because they are for clipping nails not cutting toes!!! Its so barbaric and cruel!!
I just thank God for The Paw Project and the vets we are hearing about who are making a stand. Things are changing and for the better!!!
aww maggie is that ur cat she looks geogerous
Kylee, that is my gorgeous foster kitten Tanuki. Murdered about a year ago, along with her 4 siblings by a selfish old fashioned shelter for ear mites – of which one kitten didn’t even have. It was likely just debris, not ear mites at all. I miss them so much. 🙁
Great article and poster, Ruth. The evidence provided is very interesting, and I would encourage the Paw Project to share their evidence with as many vet clinics nationwide as possible. Scientific evidence, if gathered and tested properly, is undeniable. If more vets knew about these statistics and findings, perhaps they would be more inclined to cease, or decrease, declawing?
Nice to see you here again Maggie.
It’s even worse than we thought! Remember Jean we did the data study for? See what she says on here:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/epidemic-of-botched-cat-declaw-operations.html
Hi Maggie. I couldn’t agree more. Hard irrefutable science could and should be the downfall of the declawing vets.
Yea one day we will win and what a great day that will be.
Ruthie – There’s ecstasy at this end.
You’ve outdone yourself in your latest poster & text – a combo of the Nevada Salt Flats and Krakatoa. (Not to wander off on a tangent, but did I ever tell you I heard the explosion of Mt. St. Helens? Seattle is a fair distance from where it is (where it WAS, that is – though they say magma is building up inside it again). Anyhow, it didn’t go ka-BOOOOOOM!!!!, as one might reasonably expect. It went ‘Whump.’ No exclamation mark at the end. Mr. Truman and his dozen cats, who lived at its base, were instantly buried, though someday, perhaps, they’ll find him and his cats as well preserved as the stony corpses of Vesuvius.
Be that as it may, your latest was a fireball. Can’t you almost foresee the end? When some of the vets, themselves, are stepping up to the plate – and they’re brave to do it: can you imagine the death ray looks they’re fated to receive from their sinister colleagues? – then how can the latter last much longer? And is the incidence that high of splintered bone fragments? Wish there were some way to lavish the decent-minded vets with encouragement; they deserve the admiration of every civilized, halfway sensate person on the planet.
Don’t know if you’ve ever had a bone splinter in a joint – and how much more painful it would be if were inside a bunch of toes. But I have a bone-chip floating around inside my knee, and it huts like heck.
One can but hope the end will arrive before long, and the fiends will be hauled into court.
p.s. Couldn’t help it — ghastly but encouraging as your submittal was – but I broke up over the facial expressions of the jury. Loved the old lady with the chin, and the cross-eyed specimen. The green gown was a winner, too.
I may imagine something that isn’t so, but thought you said once you meant to cartwheel in the altogether throughout the streets of your town the day the sadists are loaded into the paddy wagon. If that’s your intent, wish I could be there to cheer you on. Thank you for all your fine efforts in shedding light on this cruelty.
Howdy Sylvia and thanks for your compliments. I love it when people can see the funny side but also the serious message in my posters, I spent hours searching my graphic CDs for my jury, to lighten up the horror of what those cruel vets do.
Not sure I could still turn a cartwheel nowadays but damn sure I’ll try when declawing is banned, maybe not in the altogether as it wouldn’t be a pretty sight, but I’ll get Babz to video it for me because it will be such a HAPPY day 🙂
wow Ruth love love love your postsers it really points the messege out there. I really hope the vetst that declaw cats get some sort of punishment or start to realise what they do hurts soceity of cats. The harm that it causes runs deep. xx
Thanks Kylee, I’d love the declawing vets to be punished as in my poster but even if not, at least this latest news from the Paw Project vets must eventually stop them from mutilating any more cats once everyone knows the truth. It will take time I know but one day we will have won our battle, I’m just very impatient now for it to happen.
Ruth!
There seems to be a huge push going on-stronger than ever. With the growing number of Paw Projects appearing,one day soon there will be one in every state in the USA. I can’t wait for that day.
Together we do make a difference! AND WE WILL. Yes, the day of reckoning is approaching… I just wish it was faster.
Thanks for really great article!
Thanks Jo, yes the day of reckoning must be approaching now. The declawing vets can hardly disprove the evidence that the Paw Project vets are gathering and if they continue declawing knowingly causing cats to suffer, they will show themselves as the cruel monsters they really are.
They could pretend up to now that they didn’t know, although in my opinion if that was so they’ve no business being in the vet profession.
I hope the Paw Project vets will make sure that each and every one of their declawing colleagues get a copy of their findings, I feel sure that they will and the AVMA too.
I also hope this gets coverage in all the USA newspapers and on TV! Then no one in the entire country can pretend they don’t know that declawing doesn’t harm cats.
I loved your poster Ruth.
It sounds like there is a certain momentum in this anti declaw moevement – I like Michael’s idea that a customer should sue a vet in court for a botched declaw.
That plus giving animals rights like they will soon have in France – would be good 🙂
Thanks Marc. Yes someone should sue their vet, it only takes one brave person to take the lead and others will follow. Declaw vets will be scared stiff then that if they keep on declawing it will be them sued next! Hopefully another nail in declawing’s coffin.
It would raise the profile of the problem and test the vets. The problem needs to be publicised and a good trial does that.
It’s absolutely heart breaking that while we’re sitting reading this shocking and sickening report there are probably vets declawing cats in their surgeries right now. But I’m so glad that the tide is starting to turn and that more vets are willing to speak up and become involved with the Paw Project, I really, really hope this IS the beginning of the end, surely with evidence like this the declawing vets will have to take off their blinkers and the declawing owners will have to take off their rose-tinted spectacles and face facts that declawing is cruel, vicious and outdated. I love the poster, I would pay good money to be a spectator at this trial!
Thanks Babz, yes it’s too late for the cats already declawed and the cats being declawed right now and the cats who will be declawed by the money hungry heartless vets, for as long as it takes until it’s stopped.
From Paw Project Utah, this came up after I wrote this article, it’s MORE shocking than ever!
We promised more shocking news from Paw-Project-Utah’s study and here it is!
Last week we learned that 66% of declaws are botched, leaving fragments behind. We know that these cats are more likely to have infections, nail regrowth, and osteomyelitis and other painful issues as a result of bone fragments being left behind. But what about the 33% with no fragments? Are these cats pain free? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
The average number of positive pain parameters in our declawed cats were 5 per cat overall.
The cats with no fragments had an average of 4.9 signs of pain per cat! One cat with no fragments had 11 signs of pain! The highest in our study!
The cats with the largest number of fragments had a consistently higher than average number of signs of pain per cat, indicating that these fragments are contributing to more overall discomfort for these cats.
THE BOTTOM LINE: ALL DECLAWED CATS WE LOOKED AT DISPLAYED AN AVERAGE OF 5 SIGNS OF PAIN/ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR PER CAT! EVEN THE ONES WHO WERE DECLAWED “PROPERLY” ACCORDING TO SURGERY STANDARDS.
Hard proof that declawing is painful to your cat for the lifetime of that cat.
Our pain criteria (based on published AAFP and AAHA feline pain standards):
A. Loss of normal behavior
Decreased ambulation or activity
Lethargic attitude
Decreased appetite
Decreased grooming
B. Expression of abnormal behaviors
Inappropriate elimination
VocalizationAggression
Decreased interaction with other pets or family members
Altered facial expression
Altered posture
Restlessness
Hiding
C. Reaction to touch
Increased body tension or flinching in response to gentle palpation of declawed paws
Increased body tension or flinching in response to gentle palpation of non declawed paws
D. Physiologic parameters
Elevations in heart rate
Elevations in resp rate
Elevations of body temperature
Pupil dilation
Wonderful poster, R.
I think we’re right in saying that, as people become more and more informed, they will revisit vets to have these botched surgeries checked out. I starting to feel some momentum here.
Thanks Dee x yes I think it’s looking hopeful at last that declawing will end, but my heart aches for all the cats suffering now from this cruel surgery which should never ever have been invented.
I so love this poster!!!!!! I am so AGAINST declawing!!!I have 11 kitties — all adopted or rescued. 2 of them were declawed when I rescued/adopted them. My kitties are in their FOREVER home. . . Great post!!!
Thank you, it was very kind of you to adopt 2 declawed cats and rescue all your other cats too, you sound like ‘one of us’ a true cat lover!
I don’t see how vets can go on saying declawing cats keeps them in their homes, it doesn’t!
that is the most stupid excuse there is. . .my house is to live in, not look at. . . It’s rather simple! Just don’t get anything that you don’t want torn up! Get real folks, nipals deserve to have a life too. . . My kitties are my children — along with my son. . and they are treated as ‘little people’. . .
wow thats alot of kitties good on u for saving two declawed ones. You must be a true cat lover too 🙂
The results of this initial study showing a high proportion of botched declaw operations (a) does not surprise me because it is done so brutally, quickly and (b) it could be the beginning of the end for declawing.
Surely some cat owners will go back to their declawing vet and ask for X-rays and then ask questions. Actually I would not go back to the same vet because he’ll probably try and pull the wool over the client’s eyes.
Someone should now sue a vet for botched surgery and failing to provide proper advice about declawing. I’d like to see it in court and reported on.
Me too Michael, I hope someone will be brave enough to take the lead in this
My former veterinarian, Dr. Rebecca Arnold, owner of All-Feline Hospital, here in the Midwest, USA, has taken her de-claws, removal of the end digit of the feline paw, down to three per month. I have to trust her, and am very sorry that I ever allowed your “Familie PoC” to ever influence me so strongly, emotionally, to send that letter.
It cost me the intimacy that I once had with my veterinarian of twentysome years for my cats. Shrimpster went in for what I intuited to be pneumonia and asthma almost a month ago, and I did not even get a call back that night, after waiting for him for two hours earlier, Ruth. He had to spend the night w/o so much as a word from the practice that night, when I was promised that they would call. The vet tech who I did not recognize as she was new, did not even introduce herself, nor was she wearing a name tag.
That vet tech, I had called earlier the next day, while waiting to bring Shrimp home, and asked her, “When I pick him up, will you please show me the most efficient way to give him his antibiotic [3-wk course 🙁 ] because I don’t think that I am as good at giving it as I could be. “No problem!” was the reply. Shrimpster foamed and drooled and had the 1cc every where. He then jumped immediately back in to his carrier, which I have never seen in my life from any cat. “Mom? let’s GO!”
That vet tech stared back at me. I eased the situation, diplomatically. [now regretting it] How many of you fellow cat adorers out there have done something similar?
My apologies, Michael, Ruth –I just did not know where to interject this. 🙁
Let me make this clear. I waited in that ohsofamiliar lobby for two hours, as I watched idiots bringing in their cats w/o so much as a call ahead of time. And then, after sitting their until closing time, 6pm, I was confronted. “We need to keep Shrimp over night because we had too many emergencies at the end of the day.”
🙁 And how do you think my heart sank, Ruth. I did not even get to talk to him to tell him how it would be okay, and that I would pick him up tomorrow…
Shameful treatment Caroline!!!!!
I have been working on that for the last three months. Thank you for posting my comment.
thats so horrible caroline big hugs ((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))) i cant imagine how terrible that would of been for you. Its just so disgusting that this sorta thing happens in over usa. The friendship with the vet would of been so strained by this. My heart feels broken for you. Even myself just couldnt understand how horrible this would be. We must put a stop to this sorta thing.
We must put a stop to this stupid, cruel practice. Maybe some of our veterinarians here in the U.S. and in Canada, North America, think that they truly have the skills to to make it “okay” in some circumstances.. but you know what? They don’t have the “skills” to make it okay.
I hate to say it but they also fail to have the brains or the morality to stop it. They can make a perfectly good living and not-declaw. Vets in Europe do.
Well Caroline, if the fact that you are anti declaw caused your vet and employees to treat you and your cat less ethically and kindly than they would have before you made your thoughts known then you need to quickly find yourself a new vet practice!
Long time familiarity and loyalty doesn’t buy you any favouritism, a vet we trusted let us down badly, a few years back our cat Popsy died because she didn’t refer her to a specialist in time, we could never trust her practice again!
I truly am sorry, Ruth. It is very difficult losing trust in someone who never let you down before, I know. Popsy, xxoo. May she be by your side forever
Ruth, thanks, I commented to myself instead of to you. What should I do? I have already called my former vet, from thirty, yes thirty years ago, who is within 1/2 km of me, to transfer Shrimp’s asthma prescription (written at 28 days ago at All-Feline). Why don’t we have pharmacies for our cats? The protocols on transferring prescriptions to another practice it seems are nonexistent. I’m working on it, just so that Shrimp can get his asthma med. To tell you the truth in detail, Ruth, doesn’t belong here on PoC. I knew that you would listen.
I’m so sorry Caroline, I know from working with vets that some of them butter up the clients and in reality it is only a job to them. Making someone feel special by saying ‘Oh I wish I was a cat in your house’ or whatever, is just words, they say it to most clients, but it’s very wrong to treat a client badly just because they don’t agree over something.
Know in your heart that YOU are right Caroline, you don’t condone the mutilation of even 3 cats a month, there is no excuse for vets who declaw, they should have principles like the vets who don’t declaw.
I think you should take Shrimp to another vet and surely get his asthma prescriptions there once they’ve seen him. But I don’t see why the vet who has let you down can’t simply transfer your cats records to another vet of your choice. Ours did! They asked our old practice for our cats records, we didn’t have to explain but all we did was write and tell them why we were leaving them, which was because we had no trust in them any more.
Very soon declawing vets are going to be shown up for the cruel people they are, once word of the Paw Project proof gets around that declawed cats have to live with pain, because every vet should have known that anyway.
I wholeheartedly agree. It is time that I found a different veterinarian altogether. But where? That’s my dilemma. I can go back to Pitt’s Veterinarian where my best buds Sputnik and Henry were taken such good care of; it is so close to where I live with Shrimp that I can carry him there in his carrier. But then, where do I turn? I don’t know of any practice that doesn’t declaw here in Lincoln, NE, nor Omaha, which is just a heartbeat and a skip away. ? Ruth, please respond?
Cat owners can’t make a statement by going elsewhere because there are so few vets who don’t declaw in the USA. I wonder whether this is why almost no vet stops doing it.
It seems you haven’t much choice but to go back to Pitts because you must have totally lost trust in your present vet’s practice after Shrimp and you were treated so badly.
It’s a horrible situation to be in and if I was you I really don’t know what I’d do.
I don’t know what to do. Except this, Ruth. Shrimptaro’s records will be transferred to Pitt’s. When I left them, I had given up my cat Sputnik (who was a flea-tortured little ragamuffin himmie/siamese mix of the litter that I discovered after driving 80 mi. I left the money under their back door, and “stole” him. Drove back home, and wondered for many nights what had happened to the rest of that litter. Henry was my German Shepherd, who used to carry Sputnik around in his mouth, grooming him constantly, never sleeping without him.
This is where I am going with this. Drs. Pitts, as well as Dr. Phyllis Randall, took care of the two of them for many years. the practice suffered a huge loss when a car accident occurred. We lost both of them in the collision. It was such a tragedy. He was the one who changed Sputnik’s name from Sputnik to Mr. Sputman, as he, Dr. Pitts, couldn’t hear all that well. (Actually, I thought that his hearing was perfectly fine, and he just liked the name. 😉 )
I had to remove myself from their practice, as I did not know how to respond appropriately, to their tragedy and loss.