I don't think that you are over reacting one bit. I agree with you that declawing is inhumane treatment of any animal. I know that there have been discussions on declawing. Some of them have good links that you could use to talk with your friend about. Here is the hyperlink for the search "declaw":
http://petoftheday.com/talk/search.p...der=descending

Good luck...

Cheryl