The entire issue of declawing raises far reaching questions.

The reason for man domesticating animals in the first instance was to exploit them. The dog is generally regarded as the first domesticated creature - it helped in finding food, cleaning up the camp and protecting it. The horse made man faster, stealthier and saved time and effort. The cat was domesticated for the very attributes we now feel uncomfortable with - it kills the things that seek to share our agricultural resources.

Genetically modified plants and animals are a huge issue in the modern world - and to my mind, rightly so - but we have tried to select for genetic traits in our domestic animals for thousands of years and created animals that suit our purposes rather than the original design that nature had for them. We have dairy and beef cows genetically manipulated, by us, to grow into money for us. We have cereal crops that have been hybridised to ensure the fullest crop we can attain in any given environment.
All this and much, much more before we start talking about GM.

The issue of a few hundreds of thousands cats a year getting their claws taken out may seem trivial against all the new worries and issues we have to deal with.

But to understand what we are changing with an "idea" of "certainty" now, we must understand the damage we have done already.

Countless islands have been decimated of unique fauna by the introduction of domestic cats.

For many years in the UK the domestic cat has been blamed for the most kills of birds that are seen as declining or at risk (not always the case - and research needs to focus on pesticide use, hedgerow loss, field size, public access and a host of other things!), cats are not always the main villans but they sure play their part!

Is this the cat's fault?

The only answer to that is NO.

What do us humans then do to recitfy a bad situation? In some places you can't have cats outdoors - is this fair considering we made the domestic cat the way it is?
In some places there is little restriction - is this fair on the local wildlife?
In some places people choose to have cats in their house and then find that the cat exhibits natural behaviour using furniture and wall paper that the humans value to do this. Is that fair?

The truth is that it doesn't matter what species the human considers it has domesticated - the natural urges, needs and behaviours will out. A dog will do wolf things, a cat will do cat stuff and a pig will do wild pig stuff. - are we really so far up ourselves that we can consider surgery for the animals we made as a reasonable solution to the problems we have living with them? Do we really NEED a cat to the point that we lose sight of what caring for that cat entails? Are we really so messed that we can't choose the right option between getting a cat and getting a cat that has to have surgery in oder to live with us?

I love cats, I love having them around me - but this cat will be the last. - Surgery is not an issue for me - it wouldn't happen! The amount of little dead bodies at this time of year shows me that there is a problem.