Declawing: against or for?

[davidpizzica]

Oh, I agree. There is a chair in my living room with some battle scars from when I first adopted my two, but I don't mind because I can always replace the chair, but my two furbabies are irreplaceable! Totally against declawing!

[G535]

I really can't understand how anyone can be for declawing and still claim to love cats. I would never put any cat through that, it's just so wrong.

[epistoliere]

I never had declawed cats. It takes a few weeks of training and cats know where they can scratch. When you have to leave your cats alone, for work or else, you can put old blankets on your furniture and spray some repellent on it. It always worked for me. Spraying water is efficient also. Cutting nails help too. It is true that some declawed cats have the tendency to bite when they play, and it can be unpleasant for humans or other pets. Also, for some cats, their paws can be painful for their entire life; I knew one that would not go in its litter because he could not scratch and bury his "production" because it was too painful even after a few years. In short, I am totally against declawing.

[Jordan]

Originally posted by deed766
I'm pretty new here and i know alot of you are against declawing, but i would like to get some feedback on what to do regarding my living situation. Here goes:


I have a wonderful cat, her and i have been happy together from 2-3 years. My rent in my apartment was getting way out of my price range and i decided to move. Problem- I have just moved into a band new apartment that has very strict regulations for cat and dog owners. In order for me to keep my cat and to keep my apartment, i will have to do something to control the cat scratching. She has already scratched the side of walls, the carpet (furnished by the apartment), and my new furniture. I had tried all kind of things to prevent this. I have learned now that its either to put her in a shelter or go for the surgery. What should i do? I really rather her not go through any bodily harm, but do i really have a choice?

Hi! Have you heard about Feliway ? Is a product based on feline pheromones and is used to stop cats spraying and scratching.

Some furthe information:

http://www.ehealth-solutions.com/cat-behavior.htm

or in UK:
http://www.feliway.uk.com/feliway_uk.nsf/Page?OpenForm

I hope you could solve this problem without have to quit of your cat!

Best regards

[moosmom]

How about putting nail caps on her?? They're called "Soft Paws" and can be purchased at any pet store. I have a friend who SWEARS by them! They're easy to apply too.

[Jennsen]

Personally, I am against declawing for my cats. But...if someone is having a problem with their cat scratching on the furniture, ect...and their options are
1.declawing the cat and keeping it in the family
or
2.taking it to the humane society where it probably wont be adopted, or if a humane society is not available in your area you pay $25 to them for accepting your cat...and in those cases, people will take their cat to a country road and just drop it off to fend for it's self.

I used to live in the country and I had so many dogs and cats just dropped off in front of our house by their horrible owners! Let me tell you a story about my neighbor there who did take in a puppy dropped off at his house. He had it about a month, and then decided he didnt want it anymore, so he tried to kill it by shooting it. Well, he missed and wounded it and the dog went running down to our other neighbors house. They found it and brought it back to it's home, saying " Ray! someone shot your dog and we found him at our house" Ray then took the poor dog into his barn and fearing the neighbors would hear another gun shot, he took a sledge hammer and beat it to death!

Now, I would rather have a cat declawed instead of something like this happen to it!

[G535]

I value my cat(s) more than any furniture. I think most genuine cat lovers would too. To me it seems rather silly to spend thousands on a fancy lounge suite if one has cats.

[davidpizzica]

Originally posted by G535
I value my cat(s) more than any furniture. I think most genuine cat lovers would too. To me it seems rather silly to spend thousands on a fancy lounge suite if one has cats.

I do, too. My one chair has battle scars on it from Nikki and Daisy. They use their scratching pad a lot more now, though. I would much rather love my cats to pieces than to worry about scratching my good furniture BW, G535, those are pictures of my two in my sgnature. Nikki is the tuxedo kitty and Daisy is my tortoiseshell kitty.

[G535]

Nice cats david p, I must take a picture of mine (and his sharp claws!) as soon as I can find a reasonably priced digital camera.

[davidpizzica]

Originally posted by G535
Nice cats david p, I must take a picture of mine (and his sharp claws!) as soon as I can find a reasonably priced digital camera.

G535, I volunteer with Cat Sense, a cat rescue organization in Pittsburgh. Both Nikki & Daisy were rescued. Poor Nikki had an abusve owner before and was given up when the owner became pregnant. Now Nikki is Queen of this house!

[Jennsen]

Originally posted by G535
I value my cat(s) more than any furniture. I think most genuine cat lovers would too. To me it seems rather silly to spend thousands on a fancy lounge suite if one has cats.

I totally agree with you G535! I havent had a piece of new furniture in 25 years, and all my cats are allowed to scratch on any thing they want to.
All I was saying was, when some people, who dont have the common knowledge that a true cat lover has, get frustrated or angry at their cat(s) for reasons such as furniture ect..., sometimes it's better for the cat to be declawed and live out it's life as it has been, rather than being dumped out on a dirt road!

They probably could not resist that cute little kitten when it was a baby, and never thought about what happens when kittens grow up. In my opinion, these are the people who have no business owning a cat or any other animal. But unfortunately, this happens everyday and the animal suffers for it when they grow up.

[G535]

Sorry Jennsen, my comments were not directed at you! I had just read the whole thread again and was rather annoyed that some people value furniture more than their cats. In my most outspoken opinion those people should not be allowed to have cats!

I love all cats.

[Jennsen]

Hey, all is good G535! I feel exactly the way you feel about it!

[tvt]

I'll stick my neck out to be different.
I am all for declawing house-only cats. My previous cat was declawed on all 4's because of owning nice furniture. I now have one cat that is front declawed only, and one that is not declawed at all. I also now have one very shredded piece of "nice" furniture. The cat that has all claws, well... she shredded my loveseat even though I have a scratch board for her use.

Of the 3 cats that were all declawed in different ways- 1 totally, 1 only on front, and 1 not declawed at all- none of them knew the difference. The front declawed cat still claws the laundry baskets and me, but she does no harm to anyone or anything. My previous cat that had all 4's declawed was always scratching at things, doing no harm. The cat that has all 4's clawed, well... there you go... i'm 100% FOR declawing house-only cats.

[kittycats_delight]

Originally posted by tvt
I'll stick my neck out to be different.
I am all for declawing house-only cats. My previous cat was declawed on all 4's because of owning nice furniture. I now have one cat that is front declawed only, and one that is not declawed at all. I also now have one very shredded piece of "nice" furniture. The cat that has all claws, well... she shredded my loveseat even though I have a scratch board for her use.

Of the 3 cats that were all declawed in different ways- 1 totally, 1 only on front, and 1 not declawed at all- none of them knew the difference. The front declawed cat still claws the laundry baskets and me, but she does no harm to anyone or anything. My previous cat that had all 4's declawed was always scratching at things, doing no harm. The cat that has all 4's clawed, well... there you go... i'm 100% FOR declawing house-only cats.

They don't know the difference. Why don't you go look at what is done to these cats? They know the difference. There is a reason you are kept away from them for 2 days. They scream with pain after a declawing. You need to educate yourself before you go sticking you big foot in your even bigger mouth. You are far from a respectable pet owner. Any decent pet owner would not put their pets through what you have put your pets through for the sake of a bloody piece of wood covered in fabric.