“The declaw procedure is a surgical removal of the claw. Contrary to rumors and misinformed sources, declawing is not the removal of any of the actual toe itself, just the claw.”
Dr. Julie K. Broshar, AAFP CAT FRIENDLY, Purr-Sonal Care Cat Clinic, Waterloo, Iowa
Dear American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP), “Cat Friendly” should mean exactly that and should be reserved for vets who actually don’t declaw cats. PLEASE
Purdue Veterinary Wellness Clinic says they do “pain free declaws” with their CO2 laser. How can burning off a cat’s toe bones and claws with a super heated laser be pain free? How is declawing “feline friendly” handling?
When cats start walking on their balls then we will start believing the NJVMA’s spokesvet Dr Yurkus and his animal hospital that declawing isn’t more painful than neutering.
Meanwhile, the American Association of Feline Practitioners’ policy on declawing states:
“Physically, regardless of the method used, onychectomy causes a higher level of pain than spays and neuters. Patients may experience both adaptive and maladaptive pain; in addition to inflammatory pain, there is the potential to develop long-term neuropathic or central pain if the pain is inadequately managed during the perioperative and healing periods.” [AAFP Policy Statement on Declawing, 2007.]
To put these all this in perspective, there are, more or less, 80 million pet cats in the U.S. At least 20% are declawed (estimates range from 20-45%), which is 16,000,000 cats. If even only 5% have long-term painful complications (and the number is likely far higher), that’s still 800,000 cats with known chronic pain, obvious pain.
How many is too many to suffer?
Clearly, veterinarians as a profession have failed to keep up with modern medicine, failed to govern themselves, and failed to understand the universal, serious, and potentially lifetime pain they are causing cats by declawing. Sadly, there is no mechanism to enforce changes in the profession.
Therefore, legislation is necessary to stop the cruel and unnecessary practice of declawing.
Just like the tobacco companies did in the 30’s and 40’s for smoking, the veterinary profession started deceiving cat owners in the 50’s to believe that declawing was humane.
The veterinary associations and pro-declaw veterinarians are still perpetuating these lies and deception about declawing so that they can keep making money from this very inhumane procedure.
AAHA’s reason they don’t have any declawing standards. “It is up to the pet owner to make the decision that is right for his or her pet. While veterinarians are there to help counsel a pet owner on a possible course of action, the ultimate decision maker is the pet owner. Part of being a responsible pet owner is being an advocate for your pet and making the choice that is in their best interest – while a veterinary hospital is a partner in that choice, it is not their choice to make at the end of the day.”
Purina’s Yesterday’s News cat litter is purchased and recommended by most veterinarians who declaw cats, as their go to, post-surgical litter for declawing.
Sadly, around 2 million cats a year in America are declawed. That’s a lot of sales of Yesterday’s News cat litter from this very harmful and inhumane procedure.
If Purina donated just 50 cents from every sale of Yesterday’s News litter to the cause to end declawing OR used that money to make educational videos about why cats need their toes and claws, it would save hundreds and thousands of cats from going through this very inhumane procedure.
It would show that Purina truly cares about helping to end this horrific and unnecessary procedure that is done to millions of cats in North America mostly for the welfare of a sofa.
The AVMA position statement on declawing is purposely deceiving.
The AVMA says that there are no studies that show that declawed cats have more behavior problems when compared to a control group.
The AVMA’s intention is to make it sound like there is no evidence that declawed cats have more behavior problems but, the reality is that there really are NO STUDIES, (meaning none have been published), that compare declawed cats to those in a control group.
Isn’t that the most super slimy way to deceive people?!?
Why would they do that?
Photo is from an AAHA hospital with American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) vets, that declaws cats with their laser, tells cat owners there are no long term negative consequences from this inhumane procedure, suggests declaws with neuter surgeries to first time cat owners, doesn’t offer any behavior advice for scratching issues and cats, doesn’t suggest scratching posts or Soft Paws (they have a section on their website called “Behavioral Medicine” with a photo of a dog with a torn up pillow and say they help with behavior issues.)
They say their laser declaws aren’t painful, and say that it’s $199 for the front declaw, and they say, “doing it by a laser doesn’t hurt them as much as it used to when they used to just pull them (claws) out and it hurt them more.”