Ruth, one of the country’s staunchest advocates against declawing, forwarded a couple of photographs to me of a red, spotted tabby-and-white cat being declawed together with a photograph of the cat after being declawed. The screenshot is below.
Jim, a visitor comments (see below): “The woman on the left is the vet and the one who, according to the post, threw the severed cat toes at a third person, apparently a student intern, who was the one who took the photo and wrote the comments. The cat on the right is not the same cat as the one on the left…but apparently was subjected to declawing. It’s still very disturbing and discouraging.” This clears things up. My description off the photos is not accurate with respect to the parties but it does not change what is happening with respect to ethics and moral code.
Perhaps I needn’t add words to this page but I will add a few. I am compelled to. I presume the photograph on the left shows the veterinarian and his assistant declawing this cat. I don’t know the name of the person who made the comments which are below the photograph but they are crass beyond belief and appear to be made by the vet. The behaviour of this couple of medics during the declawed operation is highly objectionable. It is nauseous.
The veterinarian is laughing at the fact that his assistant threw at him the fragments of bone and the claws that had been amputated from this cat’s smashed toes. He actually finds it amusing. Amusing for God’s sake! Only a vet who is completely desensitised to the reality of what he is doing could behave in this manner. And then to post the photos online. Extraordinary. Update: Please read the comments by Ruth on this as she has a better grasp of the ‘players’. This article was written from the screenshot alone.
In the picture on the right we see the aftermath of the declawing operation. This is the classic, fearful, racked with pain, face and posture of a cat who has suffered 10 amputations at the same time, which all took place within about 15 minutes and therefore the operation is quite likely a botch. The vet or assistant finds the photo amusing for some macabre reason.
I am shocked and I am in despair because these vets certainly do not care and by that I mean the vets who genuinely believe that declawing is acceptable and which is part of their culture. Shame on him and her. They are not fit to be veterinary medics.
To be an excellent vet you have to have empathy with the patient. That is as important as knowledge and skill. It is also telling that a trainee vet (if I am correct) is doing the operation. It tells us how routine and unimportant it is to the clinic.
Ruth, I purposely did not read this yesterday because of how infuriated I would get over it! I could spit literal nails right now — metal ones — at those effing idiots — and right in their eyes!!!! I am soooooo pissed!! I chose to read this after seeing your post on fb. There aren’t enough words in the English language to truly express how I feel about this. I wish someone would go chop their fingers off!!!! God will see that there is the proverbial hell to pay for this behavior!!!!! May God bless that little baby. . .
All this is horrible for people to see, but it’s very good for our cause because the truth is there, amputating a cat’s toe ends is to some vets and their staff amusing, as is a cat cringing in terror in the corner of a cage.
Also the fact that neither of those in the picture were wearing surgical gowns or masks, happily mutilating a cat, her toe ends thrown around for fun then into the trash shows blatant disrespect for cats!
She will no doubt end up in a shelter one day and may not be lucky enough to be rescued and helped by a Paw Project vet. The comments on face book about it happening a lot are horrific, tales of cats declawed by mistake, vet techs stories of leaving because of the disrespect to cats by other staff, I just hope word keeps spreading.
Declaw vets are EVIL, as are the staff who enjoy assisting them!
They are not even wearing surgical gowns or masks, what’s the betting that poor cat ends up with an infection. I hope the owners of those cats do see the pictures and make public that those two had fun mutilating their cats and were laughing at a cat obviously in terror.
Good for you Jo, even if they don’t reply they must read your letter and you are right, those two should be sanctioned, I just hope they are!
Oh that is just terrible, Irish! It must still haunt you and forever. Yes we have to get declawing made illegal worldwide.
I will never stop fighting this Dee, I promise you that!