The Controversy Over Declaw

When we got our first indoor cat, Fuzzy, declawed I didn't think much of it. I thought it was a simple nail removal and some bandages so he didn't bite at his possibly sore toes for a little while. That was that.

Now that I have my own strictly indoor cat living with me in my apartment, I thought he's probably old enough and he needs to be declawed. With this thought, I started researching. And I could not believe what I found.

When it comes to this subject, people are very passionate. There are those who are oblivious, those who are curious, and those who are FURIOUS. As I researched what declawing really intales, I read rant after rave and angry comment after furious post. I saw some "If you declaw your cat you should go to hell" posts. I cannot believe how awful people think declawing is and how absolutely rude they are to those who do it without even knowing why they did.

A lot of people believe that declawing ruins a cats life. It's not simply trimming the nails; a better name for declawing would be de-knuckling because the first knuckle of the cat is removed in order to keep the claw from growing back. They can't defend themselves like normal, and many say this leads to biting, behavioral issues, and many say that because the little hurts their feet, they stop using the litter box. All of these were brought up in my research.

However, I also found lots of helpful advice and some people who don't think its so horrible awful. I researched the behavioral issues and despite many, many studies only about 5% of cats develop issues after declaw, and most even still use the litter box. Also not very many cases of biting. And all the sad stories of cats dying outside because of declaw...um DUH! You're not supposed to let your declawed cat outside!

Anyway, after reading all the controversy, articles, research, vet tips, and everything, my mom told me if we declawed our cat tony, she would pay for him to be neutered and declawed. Well, he has to be neutered for my apartment complex anyway, so after some good thought we decided to go through with it.

Now, what's my take on declawing? I don't think its fine or okay to do, even though I decided to. I do think that it is not a horrible awful thing that destroys the cat's life either. If my cat were an indoor/outdoor cat he would have his claws. If he were an outdoor cat, he would have his claws. However, he is an indoor cat. I didn't remove his claws simply so he doesn't destroy furniture, although that was a big part of it since we live in an apartment building. It was either declaw the cat and save the carpet or find Tony a new home which was not an option. Or pay thousands of dollars for carpet we couldn't afford. And yes, we bought him scratchers and toys and everything, but the carpet is still his favorite.

If we would have gotten Tony at a younger age we would have done the proper training so that declaw was not necessary, but since he was an older cat and a rescue, he was too old to wholly and completely reverse what he had learned and now came naturally.

Now all that being said, Tony is home now! He had to stay overnight at the vet, but is home now and doing well. He currently does not have as much energy as he did before, but that is due more to the neutering. Other than sleeping more, he's totally fine and we are so glad to have him home! He still loves us, still uses his litter, and actually is sweeter and nicer to me than before. We wish we could have trained him instead, but Tony is on his way to recovery and is doing very well!

Also, he looks very silly in his cone and when he walks.

When we first brought him home, I felt awful that we had declawed him, and I felt as though we had taken a huge part of his life away, but now that I see him still doing all the things he enjoyed before like normal, I don't feel so bad. I still wish I maybe would have known about soft paws earlier, or that we had the time and money to do it, and I wish we could have properly trained him, but sometimes it is necessary to declaw cats, whether for medical, personal, or other reasons.

My final take on declawing...if you can avoid it, yay! Avoid it! If it comes down to declaw or boot/euthanize the cat (whether for medical, financial, or personal reasons), then declawing is the lesser of the two evils. I do still feel bad Tony is declawed, but I don't think his life is ruined or that he'll go crazy and bite and be mean as long as we treat him normally and still care for him.

Don't freak out at someone when you don't know the whole story!

Sorry to my readers who read to know about my life and ended up reading about a controversial topic! Also, sorry if I bored you. TTFN! :)