The True Horror of Onychectomy

And I love your picture too and you know why? There’s more to that picture than we realise; someone once said that if you play with your cats they will stay kittens forever, therefore all our cats are our babies and we would never ever do anything to hurt our babies would we? Yet some do in the worst possible way.

I will never ever understand de-clawing and I hate with a passion all these possession crazy people who think companion animals are their possessions and as such they can do exactly as they wish with them. They are the damn lunatics!!

Kelly your article was brilliant; just filled with facts and common sense from one who has had first hand experience of these horrors.

Thank you. I only hope this page gets to those that matter and it makes a difference.

Kelly, that could not have been said any better. I completely agree with every word you said in that article.

The sooner vets realise that what they’re doing is legalised cruelty, the sooner cats can live in safety, without the threat of greedy vets who exploit the ignorance of people. Declawing is illegal here, and guess what! People still want their cats! They’re NOT having them euthanised, and they’re NOT surrendering them to shelters! Why is this? Because, unlike what the money-hungry vets say, people don’t euthanise or dump their cats just because cats come with claws. Ever heard of a scratching post?

I was just blown away by your article. Your compassion and feeling just jumps off the page. I surely hope that lots of veterinarians see this article. Perhaps a few minds will be changed, and hopefully a trickle down effect will begin.. and grow and grow.

I really admire your candor and openess. Takes a lot of courage.

Thanks again Kelly! I know my cats would be totally safe in your hands.

Kelly, you hit the nail on the head when you say, “People believe what those who have degrees on their wall tell them.” Americans view doctors as authority figures, and the demand for declawing exists in this country like in no other because the animal doctors are telling people it’s harmless and acceptable. In other countries where vets tell the truth about declawing- no demand for it! Thanks for sharing your experience and observations.

It really burns me up on how people try to justify declawing. They come up with every excuse in the book as to why they think a cat should be declawed. Only one thing is necessary to remember. CATS WOULDN”T HAVE BEEN BORN WITH CLAWS IF THEY DIDN’T NEED THEM! End of subject.

I have 2 rescues who were declawed and they DON’T play. Not EVER. My other rescues can always find something to amuse themselves but not these two. It’s so sad…

I’ve also come across those comments from people who think animals should not have rights. They’re usually the same bunch of people who seem to think that anyone who believes animals have the right to be protected from unnecessary suffering are fanatics. They must be ignorant of the fact that it was vets themselves who imposed a ban on declawing until the governments in their respective 36 countries made it illegal. I just don’t understand how so many vets in North America can turn a blind eye to what vets in the majority of the world oppose about declawing. Maybe I’m simply being naive, and that they don’t enter the profession to care for animals. Perhaps it’s the easy money to be made from performing purely elective surgery that attracts them?

Do they not understand that animal welfare means meeting the behavioural and physical needs of that animal? Here in the UK, the Animal Welfare Act (2006) promotes those needs. In their code of practice for the welfare of cats, they specify that owners are legally responsible to meet “its need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns” and “its need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.” They go on to explain “all cats need an appropriate
scratching place, high enough to allow them
to stretch out fully, to mark their territory and
condition their claws.” Anyone in the UK who fails to meet the needs of their pet, can find themselves liable for prosecution.

Until laws in North America provide cats with protection from declawing, it’s up to owners to boycott any clinic which offers the surgery. I’m sure that there are lots of vets out there who don’t declaw. They need to speak up and explain to the public why they are opposed to it. It’s only through education, that this cruelty will come to an end.

Two thumbs up, Kelly!

I wish everyone could feel the same way about their pets.

There is a sign at my vet’s office:
“Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.”

Unfortunately, ownership to most does not mean having a friend to care for until death do us part. To these individuals, ownership means slavery and a license to mutilate.

Shame on them! They will pay for their acts one day.

There speaks one who knows.
Kelly you are obviously a really caring person and I hope a lot of pro declaw people read your very informative page and it makes them think again.
I’ve been a ‘UK Troop’ on and off for over 2 years now and sometimes I despair that any progress is being made.
I can only imagine how you and people like you who really do love cats feel at this abuse going on and on and on and doctors getting rich by it.

I hope it is very soon banned.

Thank you for such a well thought out and reasonable argument against the horror known to laymen as de-clawing but which is in fact de-fingering, I have a name for the species that I am ashamed to be one of and it’s not humankind it’s humancruel

Those groups that you mention are all about what the humans think are best for themselves, for their own convenience and for the sake of the furniture that they worship so much, how they can therefore class themselves as cat lovers is beyond me, none of them are fit to own even so much as a hairball let alone the cat that pukes it up.

It is so good to read such a brilliant, sensible, logical article by someone who really knows the full horror of declawing !
I think you are in the wrong country as you are ‘one of us’ in the UK who truly love cats and don’t see them as possessions to be adapted to our liking.
Our vets would never declaw, even before our animal welfare laws banned any unnecessary surgery of any kind at all.
Every person I’ve spoken to here has been filled with shock and horror that cats are legally abused this way and that the AVMA stand by and do nothing to stop it.
That vets are allowed to advertise declawing for kittens(a supposedly last resort procedure) in neuter/declaw packages or with discount is disgraceful. That they are allowed to write biased articles and make promotional videos and disable the comments so no one can point out the cruelty of declawing is dreadful !
Thankfully there are many people there now who know the truth and word is spreading that declawing is not ‘just’ removing the claws (bad enough) but is the amputation of the cats finger ends.
It MUST be stopped before too many more cats suffer.

Thanks a lot Kelly for speaking out on behalf of our cat companions and against veterinarians who simply have gone wrong, very wrong at a fundamental level. It is nice to get an insider’s viewpoint.

From the outside looking in, as we do here in Europe, declawing seems like madness. It never happens here. And to think that it is the vets who promote it and use the operation to make a lot of money is astonishing to Europeans.