Keeping with the theme and original question of this thread, I wonder, if it became illegal to declaw, if the death rate of kitties in shelters would go up substantially or if people would then make the effort to train their cats to posts, etc. We have no way of knowing I guess until that would occur.

Logan brought up an interesting point about indoor/outdoor cats. I think most people in the US do keep their kitties inside. It is mostly in the rural areas where one might see a cat freely roaming. Maybe the two things are linked? More declawed cats? More inside cats? I wonder what the statistics are on this. Freckles where are you? (I tease her that she is Pet Talk's official statistician!)