This is a poll created specially for PoC by Meetville, a dating site. The questions where mine. It was held from 10/20/14 to 11/13/14 among 9,454 people from the following countries:
- USA – 49%
- Canada – 6%
- Britain – 15%
- Australia – 6%
- Other countries – 24%.
It is a large poll which makes it more accurate. However, slightly unfortunately, the results are, in my opinion, muddied slightly because people in countries other than the two where declawing happens (USA and Canada), took part.
Despite that slight blurring in precision, the results should shock people who are concerned about cat welfare. If you are not at least surprised by the results I don’t believe you care enough. Yet, in each case around 50% of the poll participants don’t appear to care enough about cat welfare.
Clearly an underlying cause is a lack of knowledge about the declawing operation…
Once again I am staggered at the high percentage of people who are still in the dark about declawing. To remind people, it is not just removing the claw. It is removing the bone to which the claw is attached together with the claw. The bone is the distal phalanx. Often (in Utah, USA about 60% of the time) the bone is shattered leaving shards in the toe. This hurts and can cause lameness. The Paw Project carry out repair surgery to remove these shards. There are other issues such as nail regrowth under the skin causing abscesses. It is horrible and quite different to what many people perceive the operation to be.
This misconception about declawing must be the major reason why such a high percentage of people state that declawing is not cruel…
I have to take a deep breath before looking at these figures.
Another poll question does not concern declawing but relinquishment (abandonment) of one’s cat. I am almost equally shocked at this statistic…
To restate what the poll tells us: 37% of people (almost 4 in 10) would give up their cat even if they have the ability to care for him/her. If this is accurate, it tells me that a lot of cat caretakers are “cat owners” and are not really connected with their cat. There is not the desired level of care and love towards their cat which I feel is required to do a good job of looking after a cat companion.
Nice comment. Good point in the first para. A lot of people in countries who don’t declaw won’t have a clue what it means. I agree it has to be about money. The abandonment poll and the lack of concern over declawing are linked: a disregard of genuine cat welfare. We have hundreds of years to go before the world as a whole has the correct relationship with domestic cats if ever.
21% of the votes came from Britain and Australia. Countries where declawing has never been performed (based on vets’ refusal) and the vast majority of citizens have never even heard of it. This may account for some of the ignorance regarding exactly what the procedure involves.
However, the voting results for the other two questions are depressing. Even if I didn’t know what declawing was, I still don’t think it’s right to interfere with a cat’s anatomy and claws are obviously there for a reason.
Why anyone would give up a cat they can still care for is beyond me. Then again, this question was polled on a dating site and we know that many people surrender pets due to a partner’s allergies or the mere fact they dislike cats, have dogs that don’t get on with cats etc.
We all know that pro-declaw vets are very protective of their “right” to perform elective surgery, so the only way to discourage them is to hit them where it hurts – in their pockets. The general public need to stop using the services of vets or clinics which perform declawing. Once vets realise why they’re losing custom, many of them will change their minds. It’s the old story of supply and demand. Unfortunately, for some reason too many people in North America just don’t care enough to boycott these vets.
I have just known one person that had her cat declawed,I tried to talk her out of it.She had to take the poor cat back o the vet . many times.It died of a heart attack a couple of years later.I dont think much of that person any more.
Nice idea Dan. We have to try and connect with people who don’t care enough and one route is the cute cat. Everybody likes cute cats.
I’m with you on that one. . . very sad indeed. . .
Sadly, it depresses me. I had hoped we were making progress.