Declawing is NOT recommended for human health issues

No, people with compromised immune systems do NOT need to declaw their cats. In fact, declawing cats to prevent human illness is not recommended by the Center for Disease Control, the US Public Health Service, The National Hemophilia Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, or infectious diseases experts.

Robert Goldman, DVM, says, “The only people who seem to recommend declawing cats for protection of immune-compromised people are the veterinarians who make money declawing cats. I’d listen to the CDC, US PHS and NIH before I’d listen to a veterinarian when it comes to issues of human health. Veterinarians who recommend declawing for people living with HIV/ AIDS are really doing these people a huge disservice. In fact, because declawed cats are known to bite people more, and bite wounds are worse than scratches, these veterinarians are actually putting immune-compromised people more at risk!”

In his book, The Guide to Living with HIV Infection, John G. Bartlett, MD, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, writes that common sense practices to avoid bites or scratches are sufficient and specifically states, “You need not declaw the cat.” Dr. Bartlett was the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 1999 and has served as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health and as an editor for the New England Journal of Medicine.

In a Winn Feline Foundation article, Susan Little, DVM, says, “It is likely that CSD (Cat Scratch Disease) can also be contracted from environmental sources of the bacteria or from other animals. (CSD is widely known to come from flea bites). She continues to say, “Onychectomy (declawing) is also not recommended, since infection can occur without a cat scratch…. A common sense approach is the best way to safeguard against CSD.”

“Pet owners are far more likely to contract most zoonotic diseases (diseases that can be transmitted to humans from vertebrate animals) from contaminated food or drinking water than they are from their healthy companion animals,” says Suzanne Jenkins, VMD, MPH.

C.M.G. Buttery, MD, MPH of the Office of Epidemiology, Virginia Department of Health. “Keep your cats’ nails trimmed, but do not subject them to declaw surgery.”

Michael G. Groves, DVM, MPH, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, answered the following when asked if declawing is an effective means of preventing human infection: “No, a significant number (of illnesses) are associated with bites, with wounds not inflicted by cats, or with no known site of inoculation. HIV-positive individuals and AIDS patients should be able to have cats, if they follow the prevention guidelines…. The benefits of a companion animal for some people may outweigh any risks of pet ownership, provided steps are taken to keep the risk at a minimum.”

Dr. Groves writes, “Veterinarians often are consulted by the public, and occasionally by physicians and other veterinarians, for information regarding zoonoses, diseases that are transmitted to humans from animals.” Veterinarians and physicians, “perhaps seeking ‘zero risk,’ advise patients to dispose of pets to prevent or alleviate a zoonotic illness. HIV-positive people may be told they that should not have animals at all. Although this advice may be well intended, it is often ill informed. Too often what is missing is some reasonable approximation of the true risk of disease transmission balanced against the benefits of pet ownership.”

The human diseases most associated with cats are Toxoplasmosis and Bartonellosis. The risk of developing these or other opportunistic diseases from cat scratches is exceedingly low. Infectious diseases specialist, Ralph Hansen, MD, of Pacific Oaks Medical Group in Beverly Hills, says, “The risk of diseases being transmitted from cats comes primarily from the litter box and teeth, with claws far down the list. There is no rational medical reason for a physician to recommend declawing a cat.”

Dr. Hansen’s clinic treats over 2500 HIV-positive individuals. Dr. Hansen said that he has seen only one or two cases of full-blown Bartonellosis in the 30 + years since HIV was first recognized. Bartonellosis is also known as Cat Scratch Disease (CSD); although, Dr. Hansen notes, current thinking is that Bartonella is not from scratches in most cases and more likely to be transmitted by fleas.

To avoid the risk of toxoplasmosis, J. P. Dubey, MVSc, PhD, a microbiologist at the USDA Zoonotic Diseases Laboratory, recommends avoiding cat waste and notes that “the possibility of (disease microorganisms) sticking to cat fur is minimal, as is the possibility of transmission to humans via touching or handling a cat.”