As you all know, I just adopted Maddie, a 5 year old persian. She was declawed. I had no idea what declawed meant other than that they didn't have their nails. It sounds like a horrible procedure. But, Maddie seems fine and she uses her front paws all the time.
But, she is strictly an indoor cat! What happens to these poor cats that are sent to the pound with declaws. I guess the workers note all this stuff and make sure they go to indoor homes, but how can they know for sure.
I would hope that someone would ONLY declaw if they were sure that they were going to own the animal for its life or if they had to give it up to make sure that it went to an indoor home ( like Maddie's situation).