Declawing - Comments

Declawing is absolutely disgusting. Unless it is for a cat's benefit it should never be done.
You present this article very thoroughly, you can tell that it is well-researched as well as being well-written. I have four cats myself and could never imagine actually considering this as a possibility to save my furniture / my body from being scratched. Cats are intelligent and can be taught not to use their claws (mine all understand what "claws away" and "no" means). In my opinion, the only time you should go near a cat's claws is to cut them if they are no longer able to scratch and wear them down themselves (like my eldest cat, who has arthritis and a touch of dementia and struggles to do normal cat things).

ugh, i was always against declawing cats, especially bc i've fostered many of them in my life. i think it's such a cruel thing to do when it is in the cat's nature to have such a thing - something that i can't ever imagine a cat having to live w/o (of course unless health concerns are brought forth). i loved every part of this article bc you write it in such an elaborate manner. also, it sheds light on both sides of the story, plus you invest your own opinion in a very mature fashion. i cringed reading all the ways you can declaw a cat or how it comes to play. ugh, it's just absolute torture & i REALLY dislike people who just assume it's something they have to do or just do it w/o thinking for future purposes.

@ The Unreality
I agree, I feel the same way about de-clawing (no matter how much my kitty's playfulness hurts.). Maybe there's a way to de-claw him and get new claws? It's probably hard to do such a thing, but in that kind of situation it might be better then letting the kitty be in pain. Some choices are not the easiest but might be the right thing to do to end an animals suffering. Wish luck to both you and your kitty. :)

I have usually always been against de-clawing cats. I thought it was completely barbaric and inhumane. However, I recently found out that my cat has a disorder that causes his nails to splinter, break, and crack apart. It is very painful for him and someone suggested I have him declawed. I have not reached a decision yet; even though my cat is an inside cat, I don't want to deprive him of something that he was given by nature (his claws). I really hope to find another solution soon. But until then, thanks for the very informative article.

I had to get my cat declawed at the suggestion of the vet as she had painful ingrown claws that were keeping her from being able to use her front paws. She has been and always will be an indoor cat, even before the declawing.

Mitzy, my psycho kitty who i love with all of my heart, is absolutely no different today than she was when i first got her in 2007...only difference is she's older and now has a habit of attacking fish, alive or dead, which she never did before.

here is a picture of my Mitzy taken a couple of days ago

@ helloimalex
Aww :)

We just moved into an apartment, and we adopted a rescue cat who was put through some major hell.. she was starved, kicked, called names, and the previous owners refused to clean the catbox, and instead bought a new box every time it got too full. They put the full (and I mean full. We got pictures when we adopted her and there wasn't a centimeter of clean space.) box into a closet about 3x2 feet. As a punishment, she was locked into the dark closet for hours. They lived in an upper duplex, and the neighbors heard her crying for hours and finally called the nearest humane society, who came and rescued the kitty.

To make matters worse, it was discovered that the kitty had been illegally 4 paw declawed because she was scratching her previous owners (I'd scratch them too!).

And even WORSE, she was only 6 months old when she was removed from the house.

She's 11 months old now, and I am getting her a nice big cat tree for her birthday on February 15th. She is the biggest cuddlebug and she hugs and kisses and purrs like crazy. She jumps into your arms when you come home from work, she will make it obvious that she loves you.

My point to this story?

Sometimes, when you declaw a cat, they can turn out just fine. But this isn't a reason to get ANY cat declawed. It is sad seeing my baby girl go to her post and try to scratch on it.

Please NEVER declaw your cat. Luck isn't always in your favor.

I remember when we had to have our cat declawed because his claws grew in ultra thick and they curled into his paw, we had to retrain him on how to use the litter box because the surgery made him fearful of it. The pain caused by the pellets made him think that he wasn't supposed to do it there - so if its not necessary then don't do it.

If we hadn't of NEEDED to have it done - then we wouldnt have. We put claw caps on our kittens because their blades hurt >3<

@ Doe. Exactly. Anyone willing to put in the effort can teach a cat not to claw furniture. None of my cats have ever been declawed, but we always had scratch boards for them. If someone is going to take an animal into their home, they should be willing to take proper care of it instead of amputating its toes to make their lives more convenient.

@ ptvjaime
I love cats, too. It really bothers me when people say they want to have their cats declawed to keep furniture from being destroyed. I mean... you are willing to amputate a part of a cat's paw to keep furniture? That's just so wrong in my opinion. It's like saying I'm going to cut off kid's fingers to keep them from finger painting on the walls. There's always another way, and if a piece of furniture is that much more important than the owners do not need a cat.

I enjoyed reading the article -it was both informative and interesting.

A very informative article. In my opinion, if you're going to declaw your cat, then you shouldn't get a cat.

Thank you for posting this!! Hopefully enough people will read this and declawing will slowly go down! I have seven cats and have never even considered EVER doing this to them, aside from the one who has his front claws removed only because it was way back in late 90's-early 2000's and everyone was having it done, and the vet recommended it to us. I always knew that declawing was bad and painful, but I never knew much about it and how much it really hurt cats! This informantion pains me, why would you do that to the poor guys?! They need their claws! I'm going to be sharing this around!

@ Doe. Thank you, milady. I happen to love cats and it upsets me that so many people justify putting them through this kind of suffering.

This was beautiful and informative. Declawing is just brutish and unless it is actually needed for the cat's health it is unnecessary. I did some extensive research on declawing a cat over five years ago and I was mortified... I mean, I saw images of surgeries gone wrong. One where the claw was growing back under the skin but could not pierce it. :/ Could see the pus and everything, reading further into that image I learned the cat actually had to have his paw completely amputated because of the infection... I couldn't imagine having to walk on my feet after having an amputation, and knowing that cats walk ON their toes... just a very painful though. Sorry for rambling, but I loved this article.