Well, it is a question that of often asked. But the answer is clear and to be honest obvious. Neutering is necessary sadly as without sterilising domestic cats there would be even more homeless cats, more misery and more shelter killings. Declawing is entirely unnecessary as there are alternative ways. Also declawing can cause lasting health and behavior problems leading to abandonment.
Spaying females aids their health and neutering males improves behavior from a human perspective. I wish sterilising domestic cats was unnecessary as it is in some respects sad that we have to change their anatomy so dramatically. But where cats are not sterilised or the process is weakly adhered to, there are far greater stray and feral cat problems leading to much more animal abuse and cruelty. Sterilising cats is done for the benefit of cats and people alike.
As for pain and the gravity of the respective operations; neutering males is a relatively simple and straightforward operation. Relatively little discomfort. Spaying females is far more serious and takes longer to recover from. There will be pain and discomfort but it is managed.
Declawing is normally ten partial amputations of the toes of the forepaws. It is excruciatingly painful. Cats have to be heavily drugged with painkillers. They bounce of the walls of their cage after they come around from the anesthetic according to one vet tech.
More: Vet tech spills the beans on those evil declawing veterinarians
At the end of the day, there is no comparison between sterilising cats and declawing them. People are often unaware of the nature of the declawing operation.
This is mainly the work of veterinarians who, over decades, have presented the operation as benign and perfectly acceptable as the removal of ‘nails’. The vets are misrepresenting the operation entirely. It is frankly a legalised and vicious assault on a young domestic cat resulting in major injury with lifelong consequences if not in terms of ongoing pain and/or discomfort but also with respect to behavioural aberrations such as biting more often which can lead to abandonment of the cat as the owner thought that declawing would solve their problems when it created new ones.
And people should realise that around 60% of declawing operations are botched leaving shards of bone in the remained of the toe which cause discomfort at least and which affects the long-suffering cat 24/7. As cats are good at hiding pain their owner is often unaware of the gravity of what they have done.
I have recently created an infographic showing why declawing is cruel. Click here to see it if you wish. It summarises the reasons as to why it is entirely unacceptable and should be stopped immediately throughout North America. Most of Canada has now banned it. America is slow to change attitudes although there are 9 cities where it is banned as I recall and 2 states.
Declawing is illegal in 38 countries (and I am told in 63 jurisdictions) as it is considered animal cruelty in those countries and yet America continues to defy reason and compassion by allowing it to continue in their great country where it is an aberration in veterinary behavior that should never have occurred.
There are hundreds (!) of pages on declawing on this site because I HATE it. For me it is so fundamentally wrong. A complete abdication of our responsibilities to care for domestic cats. A total breach of the unwritten contract between cat and person. Vets who declaw should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
If I was in charge of the vets I’d sack/ban/de-license the lot of them if they declawed cats. No exceptions.
