Sebastian’s Diary – Freethinking Animal Advocacy

Note July 2012 – this page will be updated in the near future. It still works, just! Sorry for the inconvenience.

Sebastian’s Diary – Notes about declawing:

Declawing is non-essential surgery for the convenience of the cat’s caretaker. It harms the cat. Veterinarians who do the operation are almost always in breach of their oath. It totally undermines their profession and what they profess to promote: cat welfare. Veterinarians who do the operation – most do in the USA – say they save lives because if the operation was not carried out they say that the cat’s owner would abandon the cat. It is hard to conceive of a more flimsy argument. If a cat’s owner is deciding between declawing or relinquishing the cat, the problem is not the cat’s but the person’s. The response of the veterinarian, therefore, is not to harm the cat in what could be described as a form of punishment, but to talk to and educate the cat’s owner into changing their mind. This would be proactive veterinary care. It would be first class veterinary work and it would promote the profession no end. It is time vets in the USA did something like this.

I can see no reason why they can’t do a complete U turn and start a promotional campaign with the backing of the AVMA. The campaign would be “Alternatives To Declawing” . It could be chargeable work in the form of seminars or group training by veterinarians or their assistants. The cost, per person, of the training would be the same or less than the cost of declawing. The veterinarians could then abandon declawing operations except in exceptionally rare, genuine cases. There would be no financial loss to the vets and a massive gain in qudos and status amongst the public – leading to long term financial gain.

Such an approach would put American veterinarians inline with those in Europe. It would put them on a par with European veterinarians. It would stop them being considered criminals under UK legislation. At present (2012) the American vet cannot be considered to be as good as the European vet because they practice declawing and it probably breaks US criminal code.

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