Recognise Good Veterinarians
by Michael
(London, UK)
We should recognise good veterinarians as well as criticise the bad. In this context I am referring to the veterinarian’s approach to the declawing of cats. A vet who declaws must be automatically bad no matter how skilled and clever he or she is because it is a gross abuse of, and an assault on, the cat. To declaw a cat undermines everything the vet does. It makes him or her two faced and unprincipled and you can’t trust an unprincipled vet.
We should, though, recognise good veterinarians or those that at least seem to have a better grasp of the moral issues and who comply with their oath!
This short post is part of that process. Barbara pointed me in the direction of the Skaer Veterinary Clinic, 404 Edgemoor Building, 100 Wichita, USA. link
They have a nice, clean, simple and modern website and their policy on declawing is 90% good by our standards. By “our standards” I mean the standards of people who see no place in the world for declawing. They don’t completely ban it from their surgery, which is disappointing but they do at least say some good things that discourage it.
They say,
“In general, we do not recommend declawing your cat..”
Their message (which can be seen here) is that a cat caretaker should consider alternatives and that declawing cats is an operation of last resort.
I know all the troops would disagree with that on one issue – it should never happen even as a last resort as it can never be justified.
So the Skaer Veterinary Clinic just misses the point I feel. The door to declawing should not be left ajar but be firmly shut.
That said, the mentality that this clinic shows is a step in the right direction and a far cry from the active encouragement to declawing that some vets participate in by callously giving out vouchers and providing discount packages.
If anyone bumps into another “good vet” maybe we should promote them? This may be another way of fighting declawing.
Note 1: Dr Skaer is actively involved in low cost spaying and neutering in Kansas, for which he should be praised and it shows a good approach to animal welfare.
Note 2: I am giving this clinic the benefit of the doubt in assuming that they do what they say, meaning that they do very little declawing. If I am wrong – watch out…:)!
Best
