March 15, 2021.

This is how ethical and humane veterinary leaders do the right thing when they see an injustice.

When they know better they do better.

Mission Veterinary Partners took immediate action and put an end to this inhumane, cruel, and unnecessary amputation procedure (declawing) in their practices.

Please give MVP a BIG thank you to for banning declawing in all their veterinary practices in America! MVP contact link

We wrote a story a few days ago about Elijah the little kitten who was rescued from the streets, adopted by a woman who said she would not declaw him, and the woman lied and took him to a Mission Veterinary Partner (MVP) animal hospital in Ohio to have him declawed.

Little Elijah suffered horrific complications from his laser declaw and his pads were also injured. He is recovering from the paw repair surgery that he had a week ago. Here’s the full story. Elijah’s horrific laser declaw
 
Our Exec. Director reached out to Mission Veterinary Partners last week about this serious issue and here is what their Chief Veterinary Officer and Vice President told her in a couple emails.

March 14.

“Hello Lori,

My name is Dr. John Talmadge and I am the Chief Veterinary Officer at Mission Veterinary Partners.  I have also included Dr. Dan Markwalder, our Vice President of Medical Operations, on this email.  I wanted to reach out to you to let you know that we are not ignoring this issue, but have been actively working the last week to address the concerns that have been raised. 

On Tuesday of last week, Dr. Markwalder and I were made aware of some dialogue between City the Kitty and one of our clinics regarding a declawing issue.  We spent time reviewing the case, your website, published medical research, and the positions of leading medical organizations and associations. For the sake of clarity and transparency, MVP has not mandated medical protocols in the past.  We support and empower our clinic medical teams to meet or exceed standard medical practices.  Thus we have some clinic’s like Dr. Brian Hamm’s clinic in Kansas that has banned declaws while other that still offer this service.  While we have never mandated any medical protocols, we believe that in this instance it is shortsighted and we feel compelled to take a stance in order to ensure that we abide by one of our core values: to do the right thing.  Just so you know, your comments and the research on your website have prompted us to escalate this to our medical advisory board.   

 

On Wednesday, we met to discuss MVP taking an active position on declawing.  On Thursday, we again reviewed the current positions of leading associations to develop our own recommendation and position.  We agree with the American Association of Feline Practitioners and believe that onychetomy, as an elective procedure, should not be permitted.

 

Friday, we sent our recommendation to adopt the AAFP position to our Medical Advisory Board.  This board is compromised of veterinarians from several MVP hospitals around the country and is responsible for guiding our medical community.  While we have never mandated any medical protocols, we have stated that, in this instance, we should reconsider.

 

This weekend, we have had several discussions with board members and based on feedback from each individual, we believe that the consensus will be to move forward with adopting the AAFP position as a required standard of care across MVP practices.  We have called another meeting for all Medical Advisory Board members for tomorrow (Monday) afternoon and will update you on the outcome accordingly.  Pending adoption of the AAFP position, we would then proceed with drafting and distributing the updated protocols to all MVP practices.

If you would like to speak in more detail about this, please feel free to send me an email and we can set up a time to talk.  Otherwise, we will be back in touch with you tomorrow.  

Finally, thank you for bringing this to our attention and for your dedication to animal welfare.  Our goal is to be an ally in helping all pets live the longest, healthiest, happiest lives possible. 

 

Respectfully,

 

John Talmadge, DVM, Chief Veterinary Officer

Dan Markwalder, DVM, Vice President, Medical Operations”

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March 15.

“Lori,

I wanted to let you know that by unanimous consent of our medical advisory board we have adopted the AAFP position on prohibiting elective declaws in all MVP clinics.  We are working on a communication and support plan for all of our clinics now.  We intend to have this in place within a week.  We are already working on getting several of our clinics websites updated, see the links below:

 

ACC Fox Valley  – https://www.facebook.com/AnimalCareClinicOfFoxValley/photos/a.209973532461978/3567351673390797/

ACC Randall Pointe – https://www.facebook.com/animalcareclinicsouthelgin/posts/10159402246790166

ACC Pingree Grove – https://www.facebook.com/accpingreegrove/photos/a.2349627925320901/2983274105289610/

Barrington Square – https://www.facebook.com/barringtonsquareah/posts/4146024165432493

Millbrook Animal Care Clinic – https://www.facebook.com/AnimalCareGeneva/photos/a.216167035154159/3405903332847164/

Dunckel – https://www.facebook.com/dunckelvet/photos/a.197050093737333/3648102391965402/

Morrison – https://www.facebook.com/MorrisonAnimalHospital/posts/10158227889116947

Westland – https://www.facebook.com/westlandvet/photos/a.629773687145763/3608827235907045/

 

The feedback we are already receiving from many of our clinics is they feel this is the right thing to do. 

 

Once again, we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. 

 

Respectfully,

John D. Talmadge, DVM


Please sign our petitions to Fear Free and AAHA. (No need to donate to change. org to sign it.) Fear Free Petition  AAHA Petition

Also, please send a POLITE email to Fear Free and ask them how a practice can truly be Fear Free if they allow declawing in it. Ask them when they are going to ban declawing. Here’s their email. wags@fearfreepets.com

Also, ask AAHA how they can allow declawing in their standard of excellence hospitals when declawing is below the standard of care. aaha@aaha.org

If you get an answer, send it to us. citythekitty@gmail.com

Here are VCA and Banfield’s declawing position statements and why they stopped declawing. VCA and Banfield banned declawing

Here’s the AAFP’s announcement and information about how they stopped declawing and also resources for their Cat Friendly Practices. AAFP Bans Declawing