An Open Letter To My Brother

I wish you'd reconsider your decision to declaw Lucy. She is already using her mouth - whether in play, or to make a point. Amputating her toes, removing her defenses, may very well result in Lucy becoming an aggressive biter. Quite apart from my feelings about the issue, I think declawing this particular cat is a big mistake, that it's going to result in aggressive biting. I hope not, but my instinct (and people pay for my instinct, both as an experienced owner/rescuer and as an animal communicator) tells me that it's going to have that result with Lucy. Will you then have her teeth pulled?

A few facts:

• cats are digitigrade, meaning they walk on their toes. Toes go down first, then the back of the foot. Removing the last digit of their toes permanently alters the way they walk and can lead to severe arthritis when they're older.
  
• declawing is considered inhumane, and is illegal in much of Europe, South America, and in Australia. And a growing number of cities in the U.S. are making it illegal, too.
  
• laser surgery merely limits bleeding and inflammation at the time of surgery, the long-term consequences of toe amputation remain the same
  
• Declawing is so painful that drug companies testing the effectiveness of pain killers use declawed cats as subjects.

When there are so many alternatives available to eliminate scratching as a problem - Soft Paws (plastic nail caps, Lucy would look pretty cool with hot pink or purple toes!), keeping the claws blunt (takes less than a minute to clip a cat's claws), training, Sticky Paws (double-sided sticky tape sheets), or even a Scat Mat or Scat Strip (electrified mat or strip you put where you don't want the cat walking or scratching, gives them a little shock, like static electricity) - declawing is strictly for owner convenience. Unlike spaying, or neutering, there is no benefit to the cat.

Would you have a dog declawed? Why not, what's the difference? Would you fail to train a dog to stop engaging in unwanted behaviors? They why would you fail to train your cat?

With all the clawed cats in this house, there's only one spot where they scratch inappropriately (i.e. not on one of their many scratching posts, boards, poles, pads, etc.) - one arm of my already cosmetically-challenged sofa. The reason they still scratch in that spot is because I've done nothing to discourage it. If I'd put a scratching post in front of that sofa arm, or covered it with Sticky Paws, they'd have learned not to scratch there, too. A Scat Mat or Scat Strip would have worked, too. (Oh yeah, they shredded the edges of a plastic table cloth that hung over the table. They sat on the chair seats under the table and batted at the table cloth. Big whoop.)

Please take the time to read this article: http://declaw.lisaviolet.com/declawdrjean2.html It's not by some crazy cat lady, it's by Dr. Jean V. Hofve DVM, a cat-only vet who's very well-known and very well-respected in the feline fancy. And please re-think your decision to have Lucy declawed.