Cat mutilation and torture masquerading as the best in veterinary medicine: Many of AAHA’s Standard of Excellence Accredited Animal Hospitals declaw cats.
AAHA allows their accredited animal hospitals to declaw cats for profit, advertise their declawing services, and lie about it to their clients and to the public. They also allow their veterinarians to submit testimonies to legislators to stop the declawing bans so that they can keep performing this barbaric amputation procedure for profits.
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA.org) has over 900 standards for a vet clinic to be AAHA accredited and some are mandatory. They claim that their animal hospitals are the standard of excellence in veterinary medicine and provided the highest quality pet care.
Yet AAHA allows their accredited animal hospitals to declaw cats even when AAHA says they are strongly opposed to it.
AAHA blatantantly lied to us and some of our supporters and said, “we do not instruct veterinarians how to practice medicine.” Yes they do, and that is in their mandatory standards if veterinarians want to be AAHA Accredited.
Please email AAHA.org’s leaders this story and ask them to STOP allowing this barbaric cat cruelty in their hospitals!!
CEO- Garth.Jordan@aaha.org
Chief Veterinary Officer- Jessica.Vogelsang@aaha.org
Also, please sign our petition to AAHA. We want to get to 100,000 signatures this year!!! No need to donate to change. org to sign it since they keep the money. AAHA Petition
Here’s our story that will show you everything about how AAHA doesn’t want you to know the awful truth about them and declawing and how they put profits over the welfare of cats. AAHA and declawing
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We received a tip about a Facebook post from an AAHA Accredited Animal Hospital in Royal Palm Beach, FL and here’s the post. Mid County Veterinary Hospital advertises their laser declawing services in this post. The post had 4 videos attached to it of some of their laser declawed cats in the cage during recovery. Remember these cats are drugged up and on pain meds.
Here’s this AAHA accredited animal hospital’s facebook page with the March 14, 2025 post. https://www.facebook.com/midcountyvet
Here’s what the post said : “This is typically what our LASER declaws look like the day after surgery. These kitties are less than 24 hours post-op. No bloody bandages or cowering in pain. Look, we know it’s a controversial topic and a decision we, at Midcounty Veterinary Hospital, do not take lightly. But we also know there’s a lot of misinformation out there. We can only speak from our own experience and that is, if your cat is deemed to be an appropriate candidate – other options have been exhausted including scratching posts and nail caps, will be strictly indoors, etc.- they do great . We only do this procedure the LASER way (no scalpels means little/no bleeding and faster recovery), under general anesthesia, by an experienced licensed veterinarian. And we always err on the side of caution when it comes to pain…which means we address pain on many different levels [also known as multimodal analgesia] utilizing laser therapy , anti-inflammatories, and opioids to ensure these babies have the smoothest recovery possible. Ultimately, it does NOT change their personalities or traumatize them for life! Feel free to ask @laservetdoc as her own cats are declawed and she would never do anything she thought might be harmful for her patients that she wouldn’t do for her own pets. At the end of the day, it is a personal decision and we will do our best to help you if you are contemplating this procedure for your kitty.”
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Here’s the declawing info on his AAHA Accredited Animal Hospital’s website. AAHA hospital’s declawing info
(We reached out to Dr Cynthia Henriquez, the laser declawing vet in an email and on her @laservetdoc Instagram profile and asked her this, “Can you let us know what misinformation is out there about declawing. Since you feel laser declawing is not harmful to a cat, do you have data and studies that show that? Also, please send your information that shows that Laser declawing is less invasive, less painful, faster recovery, and quicker healing. Thanks.” We didn’t receive a reply and she blocked us.
This AAHA hospital also made an April 23, 2025 facebook post about how cat’s purr and they said, “Cats are full of fascinating traits and we’re here to keep them happy and healthy every step of the way. “
Yet they regularly burn the much needed toe bones and claws off (laser declaw) innocent cats, including cats that are older including some that are 11 and 5 years of age.
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We wanted to look into how much this AAHA hospital charges for declawing, how often do they do them, who is their declawing vet, and if declawing is ok for a cat.
We have withheld the names of employees for fear that they might suffer a backlash for their honest answers.
Here’s what we found in a nutshell according to employees who work at this AAHA hospital.
Dr Cynthia Henriquez (@laservetdoc on Instagram) is their main declawing vet. She performs 2 and 4 paw declaws. She does around 1-2 declaws a week, and the costs range from $395-$495 for a two paw declaw and from $695 – $795 for a 4 paw declaws. It takes around 15 minutes for a two paw declaw and a 4 paw declaw in around 20-25 minutes. They also declaw older cats as they recently declawed a 5 year old and 11 year old cat named Precious. They claim that laser declaw is better because it’s much less invasive and faster recovery time. (Laser declaw is just as mutilating, invasive, inhumane, and bad for a cat as a scalpel declaw and you can read the FACTS about it in our Myths vs Facts section in #8. https://citythekitty.org/declawing-facts-vs-myths-humane-options/
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Researcher asked for the cost of a neuter and declaw for a 6 month old cat.
The employee said a neuter is $75 and asked, “Do you want to do the front paws or all of the paws?”
The employee said a 2 paw declaw is $395-$495 and a 4 paw declaw is $695- $795. They said that the cost depends on how long the procedure is and how developed the claws are.
They said that their declawing vet is Dr Henriquez
Researcher asked if Dr Henriquez does declaws regularly. The employee said that she does around 1-2 declaws a week.
The employee said, “Right now we have two here, we did two declaws yesterday, they already playing over there in the back” and laughed.
Researcher asked if the cats are ok after a declaw and the employee said, “Yea they are fine. They start playing with us after 24 hrs of the surgery.”
They said that there are no problems afterwards if they are indoor cats.
They said you need to do a consultation first so the doctor can let you how the procedure is, the total cost, what is the post care, and answer any questions.
Researcher asked why the laser declaw is better and the employee said they heal faster and don’t bleed. They also said, “The procedure doesn’t take more than 15 minutes.”
Researcher asked how much longer does a 4 paw declaw take and the employee said maybe around 5-10 more minutes and said, “but usually the doctor do it really quickly.” They said that makes the anesthesia risk a little bit lower.
Researcher asked for the cost of a 5 year old cat and a 4 paw declaw and the employee said that could be a little bit longer depending how developed the claws are and that could be around $795.
The employee said in the week of April 14th, 2025, they did a two paw declaw on an 11 year old cat named “Precious” and said that cat is “perfectly fine.”
They said, “Don’t worry” in regards to the declaw procedure as the conversation ended.
Another employee was asked if they are using a new laser for their declaws. They said that they get maintanence and an update on their CO2 laser once a year.
They said that you need a consultation prior to the declaw.
Researcher asked if a 5 year old cat is ok after a declaw.
The employee said that if you have to get a declaw, the best age is when the kitty is much younger. They said it can be done at 5 years of age but the recovery is much longer even with a laser and advised that you get a consult to talk of alternative methods and the laser declaw is used as a last resort.
The employee said, “Younger kitties, when they are about 3-4 months, they usually bounce back right away. Faster recovery. The claws are not as developed.”
They said at 5 years of age, a declaw can be done, they have to do bloodwork to see if the cat is healthy enough for the anesthesia.
Researcher asked if the young cats are ok long term from a laser declaw and they employee said, “Oh yes, it produces a cauterizing incision so there’s stitches. “ They said the younger kitties usually bounce back right away but the older ones have a longer recovery, around 2 weeks. They said the declawed cats are ok long term and a laser declaw is, ”much less invasive and faster recovery time compared to the other method.”
The employee also said their doctors have several decades of experience and they do several declaw procedures a week and the cats are ok.
They said their main doctor has been doing this for a long time. They said she can do a declaw on a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday.
They also said that they are the only vet clinic in the area with the laser.
Another employee was asked how much they charge for a 2 or 4 paws declaw for a 9 year old cat and the employee said first a consultation is needed to check blood work for the anesthesia.
The declaw surgeon is Dr Henriquez? The researcher asked how often perform the declaws and the employee said around 1-2 per week and said they have 2 patients in recovery from their declaws, an 8 months old cat and 5 year old cat.