Why do some people consider having a cat declawed cruelty to animals?

Answer 1

Declawing a cat involves a surgical procedure to amputate all of the cat's toes on a paw back one joint. Compared to humans, this would be like having surgery to remove the ends of all your fingers back one joint so you didn't have any fingernails left. This can be painful for the cat, although today a good veterinarian can and should give more than adequate pain medication so that it doesn't hurt very much. There is also the risk of infection, as there is with any surgery.

Some of the main arguments against declawing are (rebuttals in paretheses);

1. It isn't necessary - owners have their cats declawed as a convenience so they don't have to train the cats to not sharpen their claws on furniture. (Not all cats will use scratching posts, and not all owners have the time/patience/skill to train a cat. In the choice between declawing the cat and abandoning it at a shelter, declawing may be the lesser of the two bad choices.)

2. It causes excessive pain - my cat was declawed and it laid around the house for a week crying in pain from the procedure. (This may have been true twenty years ago - now veterinarians have better pain medications and MUCH better understanding of how to evaluate and manage that pain. My brother had three kittens front-paw declawed a year ago - none showed any signs of pain or tenderness on the paws and were back to being energetic kittens within 24 hours of surgery.)

3. Veterinarians only advocate declawing to make money; it's not better for the cat or the owner. (Actually, many new graduates from veterinary school REFUSE to declaw cats, along with debarking dogs, cropping ears and docking tails. There is an increased awareness that there are other options and it is not routinely offered or encouraged in most clinics. Also, there are some instances where declawing is better for the owner, such as when a new kitten is acquired by an elderly person or someone with a compromised immune system. For these owners, being severely scratched by their cat if it is startled or frightened may be a serious health problem, so declawing the cat protects the owner.)