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.”
Here’s another BIG veterinary convention with so many CE courses that help the health and well being of animals. Unfortunately there is also a course that basically promotes radiosurgery as a cost effective way to amputate cat’s toe bones and claws.
Here you have a standard of excellence veterinary hospital (AAHA) that is a Cat Friendly AAFP practice with AVMA veterinarians and one of the big chain veterinary companies. (VCA) Yes, declawing is legal and they aren’t breaking any laws but they are doing very unethical things by advertising declawing to stop furniture scratching and deceiving a lot of cat owners to believe that declawing is just fine for their kitties.
“That’s on an opinion basis per se and the animal rights activists mostly think it’s inhumane because you are taking off the digits of their fingers. But it’s been in veterinary practice and it’s still done upon a clients preference or decision. We don’t judge or anything if you want to get your cat declawed, we won’t say no.” Cat owner said they are still confused if it is ok to declaw their kitties employee said, “if you want to read more into it on the internet that’s totally up to you. Like I’ve said we’ve done plenty, many, many before.”
Bottom line is AAHA knows declawing is wrong and they are strongly opposed to it, but they don’t care at all how the vets at their hospitals are addressing it.
This is ALL a big lie.
When the first time cat owners asked what do they recommend, they say, “Occasionally we have people who do all four, but most people just do the front because typically cats will damage furniture or claw things with their front feet only.”