I have three cats and I love them all. Yes, they are a pain sometimes as my big old neutered tom, Alacrity Fitzhugh got neutered too late and he still likes to spray once in a while, especially after my son has chased him all over the house. My second cat, Mr. Wendel, is known as “The Puker” because he eats too fast and pukes it up. My little girl kitty Nightmare, likes to come into my bedroom at night and stick her whiskery, wet, cold nose right into my fact to let me know she wants some pets. But, I love my cats despite their faults and they all have all of their claws.
Clawing
Cats claw. Get over it. It's what they do. Getting a cat not to claw is like telling a human not to laugh. They have to do it. It sharpens their claws, removes old claw material and strengthens their muscles and tendons. Also, they seem to take great satisfaction from the process.
As humans, however, we have things that we would prefer the cat not to scratch. When I got my first house cat (Alac) we had a leather ottoman that he thought was the perfect scratching post. We told him no, but over a period of a couple of months he completely destroyed it. As he was destroying it my wife and I talked about getting him declawed. I researched it and after what I found out I vowed to never, ever do that to my cat. Here's what I learned.
Declawing
When people talk about declawing their cat, they talk about it casually, as if it were just getting the cats nails trimmed very short. Well, that's not the case. What is actually done, is the cat is put to sleep and then the vet removes the cats claw up to the first knuckle of their “finger”. Think about that for a second. You go to a strange place, a man or a woman you don't know puts you to sleep. You're afraid, your friendly hairless biped isn't around and you wake up missing ALL of your fingers up to the first knuckle. Your paws are wrapped and you can't feel the ground, which is one of the ways you keep your balance. Your paws burn, itch and hurt. You don't know what happened, but something is terribly wrong. As a human, who is responsible for the welfare of this animal, does that sound like fun to you? Does it sound like something you would do to a friend?
It doesn't to me.
End the Torture
Some municipalities have made this barbaric behavior against the law and I applaud them for it. This isn't like bobbing a dog's tail (also barbaric in my opinion) or neutering an animal. This is taking away from a cat something that the cat desperately needs and enjoys, just because of a little human inconvenience. It's wrong. There are ways to get your cat to claw where you want them to. There are other alternatives to torture and mutilation. Please join me and others in putting a stop to this barbaric practice in the United States. It's the least we can do for our feline friends.
