Category: AAHA Still Allows Declawing In Their Accredited Animal Hospitals in 2024

Colorado Veterinary Medical Association Fights The Declaw Ban in Denver. Here’s Why.

November 5, 2017 the Denver City Council unanimously passed the anti-declaw bill and then on November 13, 2017 the City Council unanimously approved the anti-declawing ordinance. Declawing is illegal in the city of Denver!
The Colorado Veterinary Medical Association is the only organization that fought to stop this bill so their vets can keep declawing cats.

My team of researchers did a survey of vet practices in the city of Denver after the Denver City Council voted 11-0 to ban declawing. I wanted to see how the vet practices in Denver address declawing and if word had gotten out that declawing was going to be illegal.
My researchers posed as cat owners who were checking on a price to get their cat declawed. This research was conducted from Nov. 7-9, 2017.

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November 9, 2017

“Humane Cat Declawing from Your Las Vegas Veterinarian” CAT FRIENDLY GOLD PRACTICE

The researcher said they were concerned about reading things online about how declawing is bad so they asked the employee if their vets are skilled at them and is is ok long term for a cat. The employee at this AAFP CAT FRIENDLY practice said, “We do declaws at least a couple a week.” They said that the younger the cat the better and it’s best to do the declaw when they are a kitten.

The researcher asked why their declaw procedure is “humane.” The employee said because, “We do it the correct way, the way it is supposed to be done.” They use a scalpel to do the declaws.

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October 20, 2017

Declawed and Maimed in an AAHA Accredited Animal Hospital in 2008. It’s 2025 And They Still Offer Declawing.

This AAHA and AAFP Cat Friendly practice’s long time vet tech tells a first time cat owner that the only time you would do all four paw declaw is, “if your cat has a skin condition or it’s one of those cats that doesn’t have fur.”

She said, “Declawing is very looked down upon from a lot of different organizations.” She said, “Basically you are removing the top digit like removing the top tip on your finger tips and there are a lot of nerves there.” She said there is a chance of things being, “bumped the wrong way or in recovery a little open but about 95% of cats we declaw we don’t have issues.” She said that when the cats are older and heavier is when there are issues with a declaw.

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October 1, 2017

Amputating 10 Cat Toes Is No More Painful Than A Neuter – NJVMA SpokesVet

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.]

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December 27, 2016

The Painful Truth About Declawing

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.

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December 26, 2016