Author: Eric Troncy | Douleur animale, bien-être animal, Université de Montréal
The simple fact that we still call it “declawing” is so infuriating… I’ve had to tell a lot of people around me that it actually is an amputation.
TIL 😱 Poor little kitties, why are humans so thoughtlessly monstrous?
Why even have a cat if you’re going to mutilate their hands?
Like, just get a dog if you can’t handle the claws.
I mean historically people didn’t necessarily think of it as mutilation, even if now most people understand it to be extreme. Many cats have bad scratching habits and people don’t know to train their cats not to do so. Some will definitely trash your furniture and people looked at de-clawing as a way to stop it vs giving up the cat for adoptuon. Are all cats even trainable to not scratch? I don’t know personally.
I’m kind of curious how banning declawing of cats influences rates of abandonment and euthanization. I had many cats when I was younger, some which were bad scratchers and got de-clawed and others which weren’t prone to it so didn’t get de-clawed. I’d like to get one now but know my wife (and I probably) won’t be able to tolerate our furniture and drapes getting tore up if I can’t train it not to, and I hate the idea of adopting one only to give it up later, so I’ll likely not get one at all. I wonder if and how many get put down simply because fewer adopt them when de-clawing is banned.
Scratching is part claw maintenance and part territorial marking / decorating. And it feels good for them! If you catch a cat scratching the furniture, scolding them will usually get them to stop. Most cats will quit scratching the furniture entirely if you give them more appealing things to scratch. It has to be a good height, very stable, and have a texture they like.
Simply clipping the tips of the claws goes a long way to prevent furniture destruction, when combined with a scratching/climbing tree. Some cats like sisal but others prefer carpet on the posts. I have a routine with my present cat where she knows if she jumps to a certain place she’ll get a couple Dental Treats, but before she jumps I briefly check her front paws. If there’s a longer, sharper nail, I clip it, just the tip. Then I put up the treat. That way she never has to put up with more than one or two snips. I use a regular toenail clipper, but a big sharp quality one. And turn it because claws are taller than they are wide.
I started buying the paste tubes. Our cats go nuts for them. I started giving them one after I clip their nails. Now, they complain and still try to pull away, but they don’t run away anymore when I grab the clippers.
I wonder if and how many get put down simply because fewer adopt them when de-clawing is banned.
I wonder about this, but in regards to the housing crisis. It’s hell trying to find a new place to live, but trying to find an affordable place that ALSO allows pets? As someone looking for a home myself, it seems like almost everywhere has “No pets, no smoking” as a rule.
I don’t have a pet so it doesn’t apply to me now, but I know people stuck in a shitty apartment that’s falling apart, just because they adopted a puppy (of unknown breed origins) a few years ago. That puppy grew, and now even places that allow pets say that he’s too large to be permitted.
I would love to adopt a pet. But this human housing situation spells bad news for strays and shelter pets everywhere.
Renting and pets have always been a problem, and the higher the occupancy rate the less likely landlord’s allow pets. I certainly understand from a landlords perspective pets damage things and replacing all the carpet because cats pissed all over and the tenant didn’t care is expensive. But as you said, with housing what it is now there are even more people restricted from pet ownership than ever.
Cat nail caps are not a perfect answer to this problem, but still an infinitely better one than amputation (please don’t use the term declawing as it’s extremely misleading).
There’s also ways to encourage your cat to use scratch pads and the like instead of your furniture (cats hate citrus for example, so a bit of that where they want to scratch and they’ll find a new spot immediately).
Declawing cats should be called “cutting the fingers off of cats so they can’t scratch anymore”.
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It’s illegal in Québec.
It’s illegal in a lot of regions. Maybe list the ones where it’s not.
As bad as declawing can be, there is something worse: cutting the tendons so they can’t flex their claws anymore.
I had a cat I adopted off the street that had that done, and because he couldn’t scratch things his claws had grown through the pads of his feet.
:(
They make these plastic caps that blunt kitty’s claws, if you need to take the scratch out of a cat. say, for human safety during socializing lessons.
I’m gonna lose a limb just trying to get those onto my cats murder mitts.
If the cat is that fierce I think it’s time to talk to a vet anyway.
If your cat hasn’t drawn your blood, is it even your cat?
My Izzy is a very sweet cat, she has never scratched me. Her style is to cuddle to death.
I have two cats, littermates. One will almost never scratch you, usually happens if play gets too vigorous and he forgets. The other will lightly scratch you just to get your attention, and will dig his claws into your lap if he’s enjoying petting too much. I love them both, even when they are being pains in the ass.
It’s also super easy to clip a cats nails every other week. I have two cats and have fostered others, and I’ve clipped them all to keep the nails short and dull.
I nip my cat’s back nails, not to shorten or blunt them but to encourage them to shed. She picks her post with her front claws and keeps them healthy, but she doesn’t really use her back nails for much so they don’t shed naturally and they get thick and crusty and dirty. Nipping just the tip of them encourages the outer layers to crack and shed. Izzy’s pretty sweet about it too, she’s okay with me handling her feet for a little bit but if she gets tired of it she’ll just try to put her feet in her pocket.
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We would never consider it because we had kids and dogs and the cats needed their claws. But yes it should be banned. We don’t declaw dogs.
I wish we’d trained them to sit still to have them trimmed, as now the kids are grown and dogs not puppies either, but it’s no big deal. Just don’t get expensive furniture.
We don’t declaw dogs? Removing the dew claw is very common on dogs.
That one doesn’t help them, though. I just mean the dogs are all scratching up everyone’s floors, but then they declaw the cats? I can get a couch cheaper than getting the floors refinished. And puppies CHEW stuff too. Our dogs have done more damage than our cats.
When I first heard some countries did this it was like 20 years ago. I thought at the time it was news because they’d stopped - clearly I was wrong :/
I thought they banned this like 20 years ago
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