2018 City the Kitty’s American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) CAT FRIENDLY Practice Declawing Study
Of the 156 Cat Friendly Practices in this study in Alabama, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas, 133 perform declaws and 23 don’t.
85% of the 156 Cat Friendly Practices in my study declaw cats.
I reached out to these 36 veterinary practices in Michigan to ask them if they were interested in helping us educate the public and their clients in their area about declawing and about the humane alternatives.
I received only 4 replies and none of them were interested in helping us.
The California Veterinary Medical Association stopped the 2018 anti-declawing bill. Canadian veterinarians in British Columbia voted to ban declawing in May 2018.
Please join City the Kitty in solidarity with The Animals’ Battalion and The Paw Project for our “Do No Harm” anti-declaw rally in Cypress, CA in front of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association at 5576 Corporate Ave, Cypress, CA on May 4th, 2018.
The vet never mentioned the real reason for the kitten’s behavior, which was the horrible pain in her toes from that declaw surgery. He drew up the euthanasia solution and euthanized that sweet declawed kitten in a matter of minutes.
I cried for that kitten for weeks afterwards. I felt the pain, fear, and suffering every kitten and cat endured because of those declaw surgeries for the whole of my career.
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.
Here is a disturbing and sick letter that a pro-declaw American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) veterinarian sent to the AAFP and also to ethical and humane veterinary practices that have stopped doing this inhumane and harmful procedure.
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.
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.
Ohio State Vets ensure their own job security by declawing kittens and cats, thus creating a lifetime of serious and costly medical problems for their patients.