Medical Reasons not to De-claw Your Cat
In my numerous years of owning a cat, I have never even considered de-clawing my cats. Yes, I have a tendency to get a bit angry when sections of my furniture end up looking shredded after a while, but I look at it this way: My felines have put up with a lot of my own faults (such as when I did not buy them premium cat food like I should have, and then had to go back out again when they refused to eat it. By the way, I do think that a premium cat food is very important and i recommend Life’s Abundance premium cat food in particular); so it’s high time that I also put with a few of theirs, which includes them scratching up my furniture now and again. But all in all, if you are not like me, please consider the following arguements:
1. De-clawing is a practice that originated here in the United States for WHATEVER reason – it behooves me, but you should know that this procedure is illegal in England which views it as a cruel and inhumane practice, as it should be. Let’s hear it for England for standing up for cats’ rights.
2 De-clawing may solve your furniture scratching problem but could cause another. If you do get your cat de-clawed you should be aware that although your cat may be unable to scratch the furniture later on, the procedure alone may traumatize your cat, causing a drastic personality change in your beloved Kitty or resulting in a depressed Kitty unwilling to eat her cat food. So, the Kitty you send into the operating room, may not be the same loving Kitty that comes out. If you’re willing to take that risk, then so be it.
3. De-clawing will prevent your cat from protecting himself IF you happen to let your cat out. So if you do decide to de-claw your cat, you will then need to make a follow-up commitment, which you may find even more difficult, if you haven’t already, to keep your cat indoors for its own protection. What does this mean? It means that you will not only leave cat food for your cat indoors, but your cat will be restricted to your home 24/7, everyday in every season since he can no longer protect himself without his claws. If you can make this commitment and the above points don’t bother you, then you do have de-clawing as an option since it is available here in the United States by a number of vets.
Whatever decision you make, do not allow de-clawing your cat be the reason why you keep your cat. If you’re so fed up with your cat that you see de-clawing as the only solution, you ought to heavily weigh if indeed that will solve your dilemma, because once you de-claw a cat, it may be a bit more difficult for shelters to find your pet a good home.
