No fire here, Mrspunkysmom. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. In some cases like in your friend's, it can be a life threatening problem. In her case, I would've adopted an already declawed cat. But that's a moot issue at this point.

What bothers me is the way people feel the need to "modify" their pets by declawing to save their precious furniture, or devocalization because they bark. Animals do that! It's part of who they are. Did you know that many, if not most dog breeders have the devocalization done on their show dogs so they won't bark at shows.

All this maiming shows such disrespect towards pets simply because people won't accept them for what they are, train them to not scratch or bark (there are collars) for their own selfish convenience. JMO.

Let the debate begin!!! LOL