SEBASTIAN’S DIARY (PART 2)

Please don’t pass away,you are far too interesting !
ANYONE can sign our petition, PLEASE do and pass it on to everyone you know,we have signatures from all over the world but need more more more if we are to make any impact with it.
Talk about eloquent writing, I think you could write a book !
We live in County Durham which is right next to North Yorkshire and where we love going.The moors are magnificent there and it’s our favourite place to go. We also have some wonderful scenery in our County too and in Northumberland which isn’t that far from us.
AND guess what ? I love your cat’s name, our late mother’s name was Ethel !
Babz and I write as much as we can as we are desperate to help educate the whole of the USA and Canada about the cruelty of declawing.
We have our ‘troops’ of UK, Australian and USA people who feel like us about it and have saved around 120 cats so far because people didn’t know the truth.
Every comment on our articles is very valuable so thank you for yours !
XX

I wish I could give your eloquent note the response it deserves. The intensity of your feeling, your efforts to end this abomination come through in every line. This morning I also read the older DP essay – which says it all – plus another e-mail of yours in that section talking briefly about yourself and your life in Yorkshire. At least I think you said you lived there … but I’m muddled in the head. If you do, though, can you see the moors from your parlor? The harebells? The furze and the gorse? Do you live in Bronte-land? The most majestic introduction to a novel I’ve ever read is Hardy’s Return of the Native. After that reading, Butchart Gardens is an optical assault.

Be that as it may, in my opinion declawing fits in with the mindset that favors zoos, agri-biz farming, rodeos, the training of Namus et al. to entertain frivolous crowds, circuses (except for Teatro Zinzani), bull-, dog- and cock fights, and dog shows in general—-though sheepdog trials are joyful. I also detest breeders’ deformation of dogs to the point where they need blepharoplasty, and wheeze through flat-as-a-pancake muzzles.

It’s all of a piece. The whole scenario falls under the given of ‘man shall have dominion.’ As a final flourish, we trumpet our rank in the firmament as being ‘just beneath the angels.’ Wrong of me, I realize, but I have a hard time squaring this with the millions of board-feet of old growth forest we grind to a pulp so we can swab our blimey behinds. Sorry to disrespect the race, but I think of my cat – my unassuming little Ethel – and juxtapose this spectacle with her dainty pink dot. (I’ve just been banished from POC.)

Am not always this out of love with mancruel (though millions are kind, but am in such pain I sit here hunched over the keyboard, sucking air through clenched teeth. Every summer I writhe through a few days of neuralgia – an inflam-mation of cranial nerve fibers in my noggin. My pangs would fell an ox, but h*** will freeze over before I’ll pop pills when our waterways are so polluted with drug residues, the fish and amphibians have mutated beyond recognition.

Hot dang! Just read Barbara’s socks-knocking, Vesuvian blast at the DisAble Clinic, and glanced at the petition. Can only Brits sign it?

If the rest is silence, it means I’ve passed away.

Many thank-yous again for your thoughtful insights.

Thanks Sylvia Ann and yes I agree too that some people just ‘don’t get it’ and I’ve puzzled many times why.
It’s different to being a child and accepting what goes on until you have a mind of your own and start thinking for yourself and realising some things happening are wrong.
Animal abusers knowingly hurt animals, they know it hurts them as the animal cries.
Vets are trained to help animals, they know declawing harms them yet they still agree to do it. In fact some advertise it in a neuter/declaw package and some give discount vouchers for it.
They know it harms cats so they obviously don’t like cats if they do that !
As for the people who have it done to their cats, they may not know the seriousness of declawing until their cat goes home with no toe ends but they must know they are putting their cats through fear and pain.They don’t love cats, they love their idea of a cat.
The people who know declawing is banned in many other countries as animal abuse yet it happens in theirs must surely realise no matter what Nationality their cat is, he feels pain and fear the same as cats everywhere else in the world.
How can the AVMA turn a blind eye to this going on ? Do they not care what other Veterinary organisations of the world,such as our RCVS (UK)think of what they are doing ?
They must know by now that the rest of the civilised world are watching and waiting for them to stop this cruelty, but they obviously don’t care.

I agree with the last comment by Sylvia Ann. Some people just don’t get it. It is not there. I have seen this in other areas of life. It is almost as if a part of the brain is missing.

When I was a divorce lawyer dealing with child care proceedings some mothers and fathers just couldn’t understand why they were doing things incorrectly.

In terms of declawing, I call these people disconnected people – disconnected from nature. But this disconnection or to use a legal term “lacuna” is evident in other areas too.

Intensive education and a gradual culture change will work over time.

Declawing is as bad or worse than something I read years ago in a tourist book on Central America. Whether it’s true, the author wrote that parents present their children with pet sloths whose front feet are chopped off so they can’t claw the kids.

When I once gave a neighbor some anti-declawing printouts, she was affronted and threw them away. I used to think such people were fiends. But I wonder if they are. In recent years the thought has occurred that a feeling for animals simply isn’t a part of their cognitive furniture. ‘There’s no there.’ [Gertrude Stein]. What are rainbows to the colorblind, or music to the tone-deaf?

Yet sometimes a seed takes root in such minds. Some individuals change with time, and the change can occur if people who matter to them are compassionate.

Farming can be cruel. As for my parents or some of their neighbors feeling remorse, there was emphatically ‘no there there.’ But their lives were a struggle. They were often bone-tired, overburdened with work, and short on cash. Beyond feeding and sheltering their animals, they had no time to reach for a tissue. Their leathery hides seemed as essential to their survival as ozone to the atmosphere. Because their lives were hard,they got used to things best not to get used to, unless there’s no choice. Their insensitivity was the glue that kept their costs down, and their sanity intact.

When they moved to the city, an easier life allowed my parents the leisure to think and feel. They acquired and retained to the end of their days a tender solicitude for their dogs and cats. I also changed. I’m so derailed by suffering, my life has been hell more times than I can count. But when I was little, I sat on a bench in my parents’ yard, my arm plunged up to the elbow in gore, gutting freshly killed hens. I felt no pity – only an innocent pleasure in the warmth of the innards, and a fascination in their iridescent hue. Eight years ago, when my lovable hen died,I mourned her death for months.

Which doesn’t explain why urbanites who haven’t had to grub out a living on old-timey farms can endorse declawing. Would knowledge change their minds? Maybe, but not if they slam them shut because they suspect it might weaken their right to self-indulgence.

Some people take pride in feeling no pain beyond their own. They glory in explaining how this attitude of mind simplifies their life. And they’re right. It does. As they gladly point out, compassion can exhaust your money and emotions.

Will the public ever prohibit declawing? Given a choice, they’ve not jumped at the chance. We need legislation. And it may come soon — thanks to people like you.

You’ve written a wonderful story.

Sorry anti declaws,but these photos have to be seen by those who think declawing is humane because they show the stark reality of a cat just like Sebastian and the cat in the next cage to him REALLY suffering.

Sorry this page is missing (Admin 2012)

Sebastian is a work of fiction based on fact and the facts sure are in those photos.
I can hardly see for tears.

When I read this article before going to bed last night, it kept me up for hours with thoughts swinging all through my head. People can describe what declawing is and what it does, but being that cat, and experiencing declawing first hand as a reality is so hard to imagine, but it is something that you’ve successfully achieved.

This story brought tears to my eyes, it was so sad… It also proved how declawing is a money making scheme. Notice the part where one of the vet techs talks about declawing and wages??

You’ve been very clever in getting your message across through this story, Ruth. Let’s hope it gets through to the stone hearts of pro declaws’… I can’t wait for part 3!!

Thank you everyone ! Yes it broke my heart to write this and I know it breaks yours too to read it and comment. You all deserve a medal for your bravery.
Lovely to hear from you again Kate, we do still educate on Yahoo Answers but a lot of declaw questions are from trolls just stirring us up in the hopes they can report us and get us violations.
Here on PoC we can speak the truth and give our opinions, which is wonderful.
As far as I can reckon, on Y/A, here, and google alerts we must have saved around 120 cats from declawing.
But it’s not enough !
I recently wrote about a conspiracy of pro declaws trying to keep the truth hidden and it’s true. It’s happened again over the weekend, a pro declaw article which I know for a fact should have 6 comments now,but all have gone !
If the writers have nothing to hide, why not post our comments ? The answer to that is that they don’t want more people finding out the truth.
But more and more people ARE finding it out and the days of vets making money out of mutilating cats and lazy selfish people taking the easy way out by paying them to do it, must surely be numbered.
Thank you again to Michael for Poc,to Maggie for the idea of a diary,to Susan for all she does for declawed cats,to the vet techs not afraid to tell the truth and to all who comment here.

The way cats suffer uneccessarily through this disgraceful removal of very essential parts of their bodies is beyond cruel.
Even with pain medication,even with the kindness (maybe)of veterinary staff,even if nothing goes wrong at the operation or afterwards in the cats life mentally or physically(which I hear is very rare)
Even with any of these things it’s still very cruel and wrong and no one has the right to make cats suffer this way.

Yes it’s the vets faults for doing this to the creatures they are supposed to care for but it’s also the faults of the cats “owners” who obviously don’t bother to look into how a cat needs claws to live a fulfilled healthy life.

Dreading part 3 but longing to read on.

Hi Ruth, I know I’ve not been around for ages but I’ve not stopped trying to fight declawing. I still shake when I hear people talking about it. I had to fight back tears while reading your diary, all three of my cats are sitting around me and the thought of anyone hurting them….just tears me up. I hope alot of people read this and get the message about how horrid and cruel declawing or should I say de-toeing is.

I know how hard it must have been for you to write that and I commend you for doing it.
Blessings,
Kate

I’ll tell you what people tell me-KEEP WRITING. Continue this as I did Furby.

A lot of people don’t realize the psychological damage they’re doing. When a cat is injured to the point of amputation, the cat is smart enough to know the injury caused the amputation and they get over that.

When declawing is done, you have a healthy, pain free cat who goes home in agony and has no idea what or why this is happening. They can’t understand why their paws hurt.

I seriously doubt it will ever be made illegal in the U.S. The almighty dollar talks and that is so sad.

Ruth I agree with Pammy; you are brave beyond belief. It must have broken your heart to write that but we all know thats where it comes from; your heart.

No one could possibly say we’re wrong after reading this especially as its based on fact.

I still blame the vets. Its vile having this procedure done without the thought of no pain medication. I can’t get my head around the fact that a vet would offer a choice! They should all be prosecuted for animal cruelty! After all if someone knocked a cat out then tortured it they would be arrested! This is worse!!!! They are getting paid to do it!

I found your story heartbreaking especially as I used to have a cat of the same name but we called him Sebby for short.

There is no excuse for this except out and out laziness. I’m fostering the last of 4 kittens at the moment and I watch with pleasure as Clive the kitten stretches out his little body using his tiny toes to grip. The thought of that innocent little soul being hurt like that makes me want to cry. He scratched the side of the settee yesterday and all I did was show him the scratching post which I’d sprayed with catnip. I sprayed the settee with ‘get off’ spray. He soon got the message.

This barbaric practice will come to an end and I so hope I’m around to see it. Well done Ruth; gutsy and brave even the thickest will get the message.

If anyone reading this still isn’t convinced that declawing is a wicked thing to have done to their cat, they must have a heart of stone.

Any human whose toes are amputated or has foot surgery of some kind will be given bed rest and pain killers, followed by physiotherapy and regular check-ups. Poor cats who’ve been declawed are lucky if they even get pain killers.

I will never understand the mentality of people who think it’s okay to inflict such cruelty upon their pets. I hope that this diary will open their eyes to the truth.

If anyone reading this still isn’t convinced that declawing is a wicked thing to have done to their cat, they must have a heart of stone.

Any human whose toes are amputated or has foot surgery of some kind will be given bed rest and pain killers, followed by physiotherapy and regular check-ups. Poor cats who’ve been declawed are lucky if they even get pain killers.

I will never understand the mentality of people who think it’s okay to inflict such cruelty upon their pets. I hope that this diary will open their eyes to the truth.

This makes it so very real even though Sebastian is not real.
I have wondered before if those people who leave a cat for declawing give a thought to what they suffer.Bad enough leaving a cat for a neccessary opertation but for a cruel and sensless one is just too much to bear.
Surely to goodness if they did know,they wouldn’t even consider doing it.
I can hardly wait for part 3 but I’m dreading it too.

And Winston Churchill said:

‘NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER give up’

and we never will until declawing is stopped !

I hate upsetting those of you who already know how cruel declawing is and I really do appreciate your bravery in reading it and commenting.
Between us,hopefully we will save some cats from going through this cruel operation by letting people know exactly what happens.
It is truly authentic as I have the information from vet techs past and present, most of who are very kind. But I have read of uncaring hardened ones too,like the one in Sebastian’s story.
One present vet tech says she detests assisting at declawings and would dearly like to leave her job but she feels as if she is doing more good by staying, trying to put people off having their cats declawed (and risking her job doing that)and by caring kindly for the cats unfortunate enough to go through this terrible procedure.
I wouldn’t have her courage.Only once was the vet I worked for asked to declaw a cat when it was legal here.If he’d agreed,I’d have walked out and took the cat with me! Thankfully our UK vets have always stuck to their oath to harm no animal.

At the moment we are going through a quiet spell in our battle against declawing. Let us remind ourselves that our work is making progress. It cannot be readily seen. It does not stand out. But people read the declawing articles on PoC and are inspired to write their own.

Gradually, like a virus the message spreads until the AVMA and its vets can no longer ignore it.

We are unable to feel the change. But change is taking place, gradually.

Here is a Mahatma Gandhi quote that inspires:

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”

This means that even small contributions can add up to be big enough to make change.

Here are some more:

Benjamin Disraeli: Action may not always bring happiness … but there is no happiness without action.

Woodrow Wilson: I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose!

Let us keep going without praise or reward. One day the reward will come. We might not be here to recognize it. But we will know that we have done the right thing and doing the right thing is a reward in itself.

Ruth it gets worse, this is heartbreakingly sad and worst of all is that while we’re sitting reading this and cringing inside at the thought of it, it is actually happening right this minute to cats in the USA, they are living this story twenty four hours a day with no escape from pain and fear. I heard today that although a large group of people in the USA do not believe in declawing they are so much against the thought of people in other countries having any influence on the fight against declawing that they would rather not co-operate with us or unite with us to fight. They’d rather cats suffered than admit that outside influence might help, well to me that is pigheaded, shortsighted and cruel!

i CAN’T SEE TO TYPE MY COMMENTS…
Sebastian looks so like my own cat who I adore, and the thought of her going through this cruel torture and incredible, unbearable pain is too much! The tears are flowing for all the cats that have gone through such cruelty.
Ruthy, you are so brave to write this story, as i know how much you adore cats. This story is so real and horrendous that it must have broken your heart to write it. This must surely get through to the hardest heart.
Cat owners everywhere. please read and understand the reality of this story!
If you really don’t want scratched furniture. please don’t have a cat as a pet.
Cats need their claws, and we should not have the right to remove them!
Well done Ruthy for being brave enough to write this story you deserve a medal!!! …and cats everywhere will love you for this!!
I am so very proud of you, and on behalf of all cats everywhere, THANK YOU!!! XXX

I’m with Michael,this is so very sad I’m in tears.
But Sebastian’s story has to be told on behalf of all the real cats who go through this frightening and painful experience and whose lives are ruined by it forever.

Brought tears to eyes and sadness to heart.