New Jersey veterinarians try and con cat owners into believing declawing saves lives
New Jersey veterinarians are terrified about losing their declawing business (a substantial bread and butter income). There is a distinct possibility that the law makers of the state will ban declawing statewide. New York state is also debating the same law.
The typical reaction of veterinarians is to say that if declawing is banned there will be a lot more abandoned, relinquished and euthanised cats because of various reasons, two of which are:
- some cat owners insist on declawed cats
- some cat owners have medical issues which make them vulnerable to cat scratches
Or there will be fewer adoptions. Don’t believe the vets who state that this a choice between declawing or euthanasia in a shelter. It is not. In fact in the cities of California where declawing is banned euthanasia rates are down.
The vets’ argument is deeply flawed. Firstly declawing is by their own admission meant to be an option of last resort. The number of declaws should be incredibly small because declawing for medical reasons concerning the cat or the person should be very rare. As such any change in the law should have a minimal impact in respect of abandoning cats. That should be the normal state of affairs and it undermines the vets’ argument completely.
However, the truth currently is that declawing is a standard operation often encouraged by veterinarians or at least not discouraged. Therefore there will be some cat owners who will decide to stop adopting cats after the ban. But this will be a temporary state of affairs as the citizens of New Jersey soon come to realise that you can get along very nicely with a cat who has his claws. It just takes an attitude adjustment. In fact I would suggest that the majority of New Jersey citizens don’t declaw their cats which proves the point.
The vets make unconvincing arguments. They say that New Jersey vets are educating clients on alternatives to declawing. My research on declawing over many years does not bear out this statement. In general vets do not educate their clients on declawing. If anything they tend to pull the wool over their eyes and underplay the significance of the operation. Even the description “declawing” is a misnomer invented by vets. It should be “multiple claw and phalange amputation”.
Extraordinarily the NJ vets say that nowadays declawing is “virtually painless for cats”. How do they know? Believe me many thousands of cats are still climbing the walls of their cage in agony after being declawed as I write this.
The statement that declawing is virtually painless ignores the long term disabilities and complications that can result from declawing. It ignores the botched operations carried out at speed. It ignores the immorality of the operation which mutilates the cat extensively at the behest and for the convenience of the cat’s owner and for the profit of the vet.
The fake and loving language the vets use to convince the public that they actually care about the cats that they declaw is slightly sickening.
“As the leading advocates for saving the lives of unwanted or discarded animals, we’re laying out the vital facts and calling on concerned citizens to oppose this legislation at LoveYourCats.org.”
The so called “facts” that the vets are laying out are not facts at all. They are a distortion of the truth with the sole intention of retaining declawing so they can continue to milk the operation for all it is worth. Declawing is too important to vets financially to relinquish without a fight.
I would implore the cat owners of New Jersey to take what the vets say with a pinch of salt. Think hard about declawing and reject it and the vets’ false arguments.
There are hundreds of articles on this site about declawing. Start here and if you don’t believe what I write I hope the articles change your mind.
Yes – they are greedy. Declawing is a major cash cow, as is deworming after this latest legislation. Maybe someday the vets will price themselves out of business.
If she was right, a Czechoslovakian friend said that veterinary care is free in her country. Though of course nothing is; the Scandinavians relinquish at least a third of their income. But if people in democratic socialisms can fall through the cracks, over here we plunge into a chasm. America’s nursing homes charge $9,000 a month to care for their residents. Hospitals charge patients $20.00 for an aspirin. Childcare costs $600.00+ a month. And students with only four years of college are sunk in debt.
Declawing should be criminalized. The newcomer in my house is learning she can claw only one chair: a $20.00 upholstered number from Salvation Army I bought for my other cats, both of them gone, to rip up. She’s in heaven to pump the remnants of stuffing still clinging to its frame. POCK! POCK!
This summer I mentioned her clawing to one of her veterinarians. He glanced at her toes and said that I ‘might want to consider. . . ‘ then stopped. I’ve never knowingly reamed anyone with a death-ray glare, but he got as far as the word ‘consider,’ locked eyes with me and petered out mid-sentence, as if he saw the Portals of Hell yawning open to engulf him.
Yes — and Sid is much too nice to her. An avuncular gentleman, even though she drives him crazy.
My own lunacy is closing in fast. Just learned the vets in this area – and elsewhere? – have now prevented the pet supply stores from stocking vermifuge. You used to be able to buy tapeworm tablets ($5.00 for three tablets). But now the vets have crunched down and forbidden these stores from selling the stuff – meaning there is no choice but to buy it from THEM (unless there’s an online supplier) — and they charge $29.00 for a tiny foil packet of liquid to squirt on the neck.
Two weeks ago she had a hysterectomy at a clinic out at the ocean. I waited six hours for her to recover, and when they gave her back, the sight was heart-wrenching. Legs spraddled out, eyes unfocused, and croaking like a bullfrog. I refused to take her home in that condition. The vet said ‘No, no — she’s fine! She’s just groggy!’ I still insisted on a post-surgical pain-killer. They finally relented and whacked me $48.00 for a three-drop ampule. Two minutes after we got home, she was dancing, meowing and begging for food, as she was starved, having had no dinner the night before and no breakfast. She didn’t show the slightest indication of pain, so the medicine was for nothing. Am at a loss to understand any of this, as a woman with her privates torn out would be wheelchair-bound for a week and begging for morphine injections.
And now this. M’gawd. Will go online and see if ‘Buddylove’ (whatever their name is) sells worm repellent.
Nice to hear from you Silvia Ann. Vets can be a bit greedy, hence declawing. I think the veterinarian’s status in the USA is harmed by their declawing of cats.
Well, Ruthie….if you can believe this, the ‘Perv’ threw a kitten in my yard five months ago. And yes — she’s all claws — and no, she’s not going to be declawed. Curtains dangling askew in tatters. Knocked over a pseudo-Tiffany lamp, smashing the glass shade into smithereens. Clawed off the molding around every door. Disemboweled sofa. Reduced Hamadan rugs to maroon rags. Thanks to the Perv’s largesse, she’s cost over $530.00 since her arrival. Can’t think of keeping the confounded cat. Can’t give her up. She’ll live for another 20 years, and it’ll be a miracle if I make it thru the weekend….
The end is near.
Oh dear! Have you still got Syd too?
Thank you Michael for writing this article, you have made a brilliant job of it!
Thousands of anti declaw cat lovers are being conned into liking the New Jersey Veterinarians face book page entitled ‘If you love cats, please don’t support euthanasia, oppose A3899 and S2410’ They are the bills to BAN declawing. We need to SUPPORT those bills, not oppose them. Follow the link to their web site Love your cats.org and there are blatant lies about why declawing should not be banned. I have set up a public group on face book entitled ‘Cat lovers in support of the New Jersey bill to stop declawing’ where pro declaws can find out the truth about this cruel surgery. We desperately need the New Jersey ban to go through, then other States will follow. We must stop those vets from convincing cat lovers the bill would mean more cats killed. It should not be declawing or death! Anyone who will not accept that cats have claws because they need them, should not have a cat as a pet!
My pleasure and thanks for telling about this. The vets’ true attitude towards declawing (cynical) comes out when they struggle to keep this obnoxious operation alive in the face of a ban. Let’s pray the ban becomes law. It will be a massive step towards a nationwide ban. It will make my Christmas meaningful.
Can you believe that you can buy ‘likes’ on face book! Those vets are so desperate to keep on mutilating cats, apparently it’s being said that’s what they are doing so as to look as if they have far more support to keep declawing legal than they really have.
Yes it would be very good news if this ban goes through in New Jersey and also the New York one which is pending to come up again early in 2017, surely if they succeed, more States would ban it too
Veterinarian in Washington, GA spews the same cockamamie story about keeping cats in their homes. This pee-pole is definitely in the business for money.
Thanks for commenting. Agreed.
I thinks many vets and shelters ( not rescues ) believe this. And while you can point you finger at vets doing the procedure a bigger frustration to educated vets are pet owners that want the quick fix. Or as you will see on any pet behavior site pet owners who ask for solutions but then refuse to follow though. Realistically if someone is going to mutilate their cat or get rid of it for destroying a chair, curtain or rug isn’t much of a pet owner anyway.
True! Those who insist on declawed cats need to rescue. It would save them money.
Well they don’t want those declawed cats from the rescue or shelter, many have horrible litter box issues , aggression and are in need of surgical correction for painful botched declaws. Just about everyone with two brain cells to bang together would consider it neglectful not to housebreak a puppy but it seems spending some time with your kitten to make sure they are using the litter box and the scratch post don’t occur to many cat owners. The idea that cats are low maintenance pets is absurd.
As before I had a long discussion with my new and very educated cat vet because I happened to mention that Mercy was sometimes inappropriate about scratching. ( first month I had her). She rad down everything we could do to train and correct the situation and handed us a brochure in the main lobby that was anti declaw. This was at a VCA hospital. And then told me she will declaw because when you get a client that is hell bent on doing it morally she feels that making sure it’s not a botch job is her last option. She constantly advocates for clipping claws. Any veterinarian that endorses declawing as a way to correct bad behavior , save a cats home or other nonsense really is in it for the money. I understood her plight and respected her honesty. Because if she says NO to someone who is going to get it done regardless then that cat is in even greater danger of more pain by someone who doesn’t care about the cat at all. They can just go to the cheapest hack down the road.
We have a saying in the US. As Cali goes so does the rest of the country. The number of declawed cats in shelters is proof it does not fix a problem. Just makes one worse or leads to even worse. My 15 week old kits use the scratching post 100% of the time. And we don’t have a mark on us. I can’t wait until it’s 100% illegal.