You may want to do a "search" through old threads for this topic. As you may guess, it is a heated topic, and many people have very strong opinions on this topic.

I have had cats declawed earlier in ownership, when I lived with my parents and the cats were destroying my Mom's chairs. Now that I have my own life and have learned how to train my new cats to scratching posts, I would never consider it. So I have gone both directions - I would recommend NOT declawing, but learning to trim nails and train the cat to the post!

Get ready for lots of comments on this!