These are screenshots of posts by the Director of Lake Haven Rescue on her rescue’s facebook page on November 20, 2017. 
As many of you have heard, Lake Haven Rescue, in the town of Newaygo, Michigan, is declawing most of the kittens and younger cats that they rescue from the shelters. They adopt around 600-900 cats a year.
We must have a targeted education campaign and intervention for this area of Michigan so that they are educated about the facts about declawing! I tried to reach out and have a respectful dialogue with the Director of Lake Haven Rescue, Cheryl McCloud, but she isn’t budging. She won’t entertain the idea of educating cat owners about declawing and she won’t entertain the idea of working together to make campaigns to educate the public in her area. She won’t stop declawing the kittens before she puts them up for adoption. I even asked her to open her heart and mind and realize she is causing so much harm, pain, and suffering by declawing most of her cats.
She said, “I have superior skilled surgeons. I will declaw a kitten to find it a home and can tell you I get them her after surgery and even though they receive pain meds for three days they are bouncing around and playing like maniacs 2 days after surgery.”
She said, ” I would rather see a kitten spayed /declawed living inside a beautiful home than to be gassed or worse at a county shelter. By the way I personally have never had a declawed cat. I just adopted a feral cat 6 years old from GA. I had 4 that lived to be 19-21 none were declawed. I have a choice….spay and declaw or leave them there to die. I suspect you are one who leaves them there to die, and boy do they suffer at some of the county shelters.
She called us “radicals.”
She said, “You are saving nothing from nothing. You do not speak truth. How can you sleep knowing all you do is get on facebook and yap while animals die.”
The she said this, “Ok you win I will leave them in the shelters to die…I trust you will get them…..right?”
And last thing she said this, ” I do not promote declawing . I myself have never had a declawed cat. I only declaw when people request it or when I have kittens not yet spoken for. If the slander continues I will speak to my attorney . You may speak all you want about declawing spreading all kinds of lies if you like but if you continue to slander Lake Haven you are going to end up in court. The slander and mistruths stop now or else. Please use your time to save all the kittens from death in county shelters and shut your yap.
These screenshots will show you why we must urgently educate the public in this area so that they will adopt Lake Haven Animal Rescue’s kitties without wanting them to be declawed.
The owner of Lake Haven Rescue feels that cat owners demand to have their cats declawed so that’s why she automatically does it to most all of their kittens and cats under a year old. For some strange reason, the word has not gotten out to most cat owners in this area that declawing is bad for the health and well being of a kitten or cat.
Many of the volunteers, and even the owner of LHAR, think that declawing is the same as spay/neutering and say that any surgery has risks. In this day and age these comments are shocking to say the least. Education is the key and we must do it respectfully and nicely.
Screenshots from Lake Haven Animal Rescue and from their Lake Haven
Here are some of the examples in 2016 that the Director and a volunteer posted to the Lake Haven Animal Rescue FB page Lake Haven Animal Rescue FB page
Maybe you can respectfully reach out to some who are in this group and see if they want to join us to help educate the public in their area about declawing.
I also reached out. in October 2016, to the main vet that Lake Haven Rescue uses to declaw their kittens which is Fremont Animal Hospital in Fremont, Michigan. The vet that does the declaws wrote me back and said, “Here at Fremont Animal Hospital we declaw cats using a laser as an elective surgery. We declaw cats and kittens for Lake Haven Rescue also. You will not change our minds on offering the surgery as a clinic, and unlikely to change Lake Havens position on declaws. Many Americans are lazy and many prefer declawed cats even with the knowledge of the negative repercussions. However, you have brought up many good points of things that I know to be true about the potential side effects of declawing cats. After you email we are going to be more proactive about educating clients of those negative side effects. We can always learn and improve. Thank you for your concerns. Marie Breuker DVM”
In November 2017 Fremont and Dr Breuker are still declawing cats. They even have declawing recommendations on their NEW KITTEN page on their website. [button href=”http://www.fremontanimalhospital.net/new-kitten-now-what.html” color=”red” newwindow=”yes”] Fremont Animal Hospital New Kitten page[/button]
Their employee says when a researcher called for the price of a declaw and if their vets are skilled at them, “we do a lot of declaws here” and when asked if there are any negative side effects they sometimes have cats that limp after declaws, they hide, don’t use their litter boxes, and hold their paws up and don’t want to put them down. When asked how many cats come back with those problems and the employee said she didn’t have a percentage and that they can’t predict how any surgery will go and it depends on the cat and its recovery. They said their laser is more humane but they are still amputating the first digit. They said Dr Brueker does, “Quite a few of them” when referring to declaws.
They recommend using Purina’s Yesterday’s News Cat litter for their declawed cats for 7-10 days and they sell a bag for $11 that they say should cover all those days. Please sign my petition to Purina [button href=”http://bit.ly/PurinaDeclawPetition” color=”red” newwindow=”yes”] PLEASE SIGN MY PURINA PETITION[/button]
Campaign Objectives:
Educate cat owners that declawing is inhumane, cruel, unnecessary, and always harms a cat both short and long term.[button href=”https://www.drmartybecker.com/veterinary-medicine/evidence-declawing-cats-just-keeps-mounting/” color=”green” newwindow=”yes”] Dr Marty Becker Story with studies about declawing facts[/button]
Educate cat owners that cats need their toe bones and claws for many aspects of their health and well being.
Educate and inspire cat owners to use commonsense and the humane alternatives like scratchers, Soft Paws, and trimming their cat’s nails.
Encourage cat owners to be on the right side of cat history and do the right thing and stop harming their kitties by having them declawed and provide them success stories.
Encourage and inspire cat owners to put the welfare of their cats OVER the welfare of their furniture.
CAMPAIGN IDEAS
Reach out to legislators in Newaygo and Newaygo County and surrounding towns and counties including Grand Rapids.
Respectfully post links to educational declawing stories on facebook, instagram, and twitter pages of Newaygo and surrounding counties and towns. Nicely ask if they will join us.
Respectfully reach out to all the veterinary practices near Newaygo and ask them if they will help to educate cat owners about declawing and teach them about the humane alternatives. Post inspirational requests to join us with this Keep the Claws Campaign on their facebook and social media pages. Here is a handy list of them that Lake Haven Animal Rescue uses. List of veterinary practices that Lake Haven Animal Rescue uses
Respectfully reach out to Newaygo businesses and organizations and ask them for help with this Keep The Claws campaign. Here are some facebook pages for example. Maybe their kids will be able to teach them right from wrong.
Newaygo Public Schools facebook page
Newaygo County Parks and Recreation Facebook page
Please don’t threaten or be rude to anyone involved. We must do the right thing and take the high road and be respectful. It is wrong to threaten them in any way plus they will twist things around and play the victim. We know that the only victims are all the kitties that are being unnecessarily and cruelly declawed. We MUST continue to shine light on this cause and share all of these stories so that we show the truth about what is going on. We MUST continue to educate cat owners who are being deceived by their pro-declaw vets and who are NOT being told about how declawing is amputations and not good for the health and well being of their cats, how it is inhumane and very painful, and how there are humane alternatives that they can use instead of declawing.
The way that we make positive change is through peaceful and respectful actions and words. When you lash out and are threatening, it hurts our important cause and makes us all look bad, and in turn saves less kitties from this very cruel and inhumane procedure.