Here are many examples of those in the veterinary profession and some outside of it, who could truly help to end the inhumane procedure of declawing, but aren’t.
Declawing is banned in most of the rest of the world and veterinary associations in Europe and also the UK Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons call it mutilation.
25%- 43% of cats in America are declawed. According to the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association (SCVMA), most veterinarians offer declawing and 5% make over $1000/hour performing the procedure. Clients who bring their cats to these veterinarians typically report that neither the nature of the procedure, complications, nor humane alternatives is ever discussed. (Info from PawProject.org)
I’ve done my own studies and have found that over 80% of veterinary practices in America declaw cats and over 60% of those pro-declaw veterinary practices do not counsel clients about the humane alternatives, the procedure itself, or the possibilities of complications.
Many are looking the other way and don’t want to put any accountability in their declawing positions that say it should be a last resort or that they are against it.
My mom and I started working on this cause as volunteers in 2014 and have worked 16 hr days, 7 days a week. .
Many of those in the veterinary profession and vet associations, who took an oath to heal and help, are trying to stop all of us from ending this non-therapeutic, inhumane procedure.
We are simply shining light on their unethical behavior in regards to declawing.
Where is their humanity to be able to feel compassion for kitties instead of concern for a piece of furniture or greed?
Is it sadly all about the bottom line, the almighty $$$$$ Greed over the welfare of little cats.
The big vet associations don’t want to lose their due paying pro-declaw members, so they tip toe around with politically correct declawing policy statements, yet don’t enforce them or put any accountability.
Sadly the majority of vets who declaw cats, don’t want to have to stop amputating kitties toes because of the income it generates. They want to just cater to their clients wishes so that they don’t lose their business. It’s easier to take the money and amputate the poor kittie’s toes. The pro-declaw vets say there is a demand for it and their cat owners want it so until that ends they will keep granting their wishes.
Why did they go to vet school for years if they are just going to say they do what their clients needs and wants are??
Call your vet up and ask them to remove your dogs teeth because it is chewing up all your household items or ask them to declaw your dog’s front paws because it is ruining your wood floors and if they don’t you will take your dog back to the shelter. They will say they won’t do those procedures to your dog because it is wrong and inhumane. But ask them to amputate your kitties toes and claws, they acquiesce.
We are real weary and disheartened from this fight but won’t give up. We need your help.
Thank you, City the Kitty
1) The AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association)
Please come out and condemn declawing in domestic cats like you did for exotic cats and stop being afraid of losing due paying veterinarian members. Declawing causes the same kind of pain and suffering in ALL cats and ALL cats’ lives matter. You say it should be a last resort but most of your veterinarians don’t counsel clients on the humane alternative or tell them how bad declawing is. Many of them do it as a first option and for the money. A terrible example of how it is a first option for many of your veterinarians is the horrific story of Teeger, Ryder, and Abby.
You say that it is better than having a cat euthanized or thrown into a shelter. Stop with this weak excuse. If you cared about cats being in shelters then start a campaign to save the thousands of DECLAWED kitties in shelters on “high risk” lists after they were thrown away because of biting or litter box avoidance issues. You can start by going to petfinder and search declawed cats.
Stop teaching your vets at your yearly conventions how to amputate cats’ toes with lasers and instead teach how to perform healing procedures with your buddies at Aesculight lasers. Laser declaw is no better than the guillotine blade or scalpel method. Greed over the welfare of cats is wrong.
Screenshot from the AVMA facebook page with a very weak excuse as to why the AVMA won’t support a full ban on this mutilating procedure.
The AVMA has recently supported a bill to ban the inhumane practice of soring horses. Soring is the intentional infliction of pain to a horse’s legs or hooves in order to force the horse to perform an artificial, exaggerated gait. Caustic chemicals are applied to the horse’s limbs, causing extreme pain and suffering.
Soring AND declawing cause excruciating pain, always cause some sort of lameness, and are done for the owners benefit. Soring horses can bring more money to the HORSE owner but not for veterinarians.
As we know, declawing brings in a lot of money to veterinarians, not the cat owners.
Why does the AVMA support the banning of soring but NOT the banning of declawing? Because most veterinarians in the AVMA declaw cats and they don’t want them to lose that income. Greed over the welfare of cats. Maybe you can get answers from the PR folks at the AVMA because they won’t explain a thing to me. Michael Filippo- Senior communications director MSanFilippo@avma.org and Dr Kimberly May- KMay@avma.org 847 285 6667
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE AVMA IS TRYING TO STOP US FROM SHINING LIGHT ON UNETHICAL THINGS THAT SOME OF THEIR VETS ARE DOING IN REGARDS TO DECLAWING AVMA story
Here is what a 30 yr member AVMA vet, Dr Glen Weber, did after he talked these first time cat owners out of using the humane options. AVMA vet story
Stop playing the victim and crying cyber bullying by trying to deflect the attention away from the real issue of mutilating cats’ paws.
This playing the victim mentality is catching on with other veterinarians and semi-famous veterinarians and is not very becoming.Victim playing
Declawing is NOT a “humane procedure” as the AVMA says it is in this obituary of the unethical vet who invented declawing back in the 50’s.
The AVMA said this on their Facebook page 
And yet they advertise to their vets about a workshop on how to declaw cats and profit from it at their annual convention. From the AVMAconvention.org website.
Here is how they are deceiving the public with their propaganda about declawing [button href=”https://citythekitty.org/american-veterinary-money-association-deception-for-profits/” color=”red” newwindow=”yes”] AVMA Myths and Lies[/button]
2) PURINA AND FRISKIES
PURINA makes Yesterday’s News Cat litter and it’s the most recommended and used cat litter for declawed cats by vets. Purina makes millions of dollars from declawing. I’ve asked them to help us end it by using some of the money they make from it to make educational videos about why cats need their claws or donate a dollar from each sale of Yesterday’s News to the PawProject .org to help repair the mutilated and sensitive paws of declawed cats in need. More about this Purina4Paws idea [button href=”https://citythekitty.org/american-veterinary-money-association-deception-for-profits/” color=”red” newwindow=”yes”] Purina4Paws[/button]
3) AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association)
You are the number one vet association that CAN put accountability in your strong opposition to declawing cats and not accredit any of your standard of excellence veterinary hospitals if they amputate kitties toes. This horrific thing happened at one of your hospitals and if you would have had a no-declaw policy in place then this would never have happened. The vet owner of this AAHA hospital just wanted the money from the declaws and that’s why he actually called the owners up after they had cancelled the declaw appointment because they wanted to try SoftPaws. This vet told the owners that Soft Paws just fall off (Which is not true), that declawing is a common/standard procedure, and that their cats will be fine. [button href=”https://citythekitty.org/3-kitties-declaw-story/”] Full story[/button] 
Here is an AAHA practice that has the largest professional staff in the Midwest, with 17 veterinarians, most are AVMA members and some AAFP members. They have been serving this community for 50 yrs. Their motto is that they are “Caring for your best friend.”
When you call them to inquire about getting your cat declawed, they ask you if you want the front paws or all four paws. There is only this information on their website. No efforts to educate the client on the effective humane alternatives on the website, in person, or on the phone. Just the fact that you can bring your kitty in anytime and they will require a $60 exam to see if the cat is healthy enough to have this disabling surgery and for $359.50 you can have all the toe bones and claws amputated on all four paws.
Here are many more sad examples of how so many of your hospitals are directly harming cats and kittens because you have no accountability in your declawing position that strongly opposes declawing [button href=”https://citythekitty.org/aaha-double-standard-directly-harms-the-welfare-of-cats/” color=”orange”] AAHA Double Standard[/button]
4) AAFP (American Association of Feline Practitioners)
Please stop giving your prestigious “Cat Friendly” stamp of approval on clinics that declaw kitties or on your veterinarians. Your equivalents at ICatCare.org/ISFM have this in place so why can’t you? If you are a truly being “friendly” to a cat you won’t let your doctors needlessly amputate their toes!
More about AAFP Cat Friendly practices and declawing- Cat Friendly Practices and Declawing
From ICATCARE.org-
5) UPDATE! DECLAWING WAS BANNED IN NEW YORK STATE ON JULY 22, 2019
NYSVMS (New York State Veterinary Medical Society)
Please stop trying to fight our bill to ban declawing in your state and help us end this mutilating procedure. If you really want to “advance veterinary medicine” then get out of your antiquated mindset and help us END this well known form of horrific torture.
There are hundreds of declawed kitties in shelters in NY. If you really cared about how declawing keeps a cat in a home, then why don’t you and your members actively try to help them get OUT of those shelters?
Your excuses to keep this mutilating procedure legal, are all weak and an embarrassment to your profession. Your veterinary colleagues all over Europe call it mutilation and are simply appalled that you are doing this horrific procedure so often and now trying to work so hard to be able to keep performing it at your practices.
You say that your veterinarians do it as a last resort.
Stop trying to fool the legislators because most of your vets do it as a first option and as a money making procedure.
6) ASPCA
You say that you are against declawing and when I respectfully reached out to you to ask if you are going to help us with the bill to ban declawing in NY and also wondered why you had that out for veterinarians about people with immune compromised, you say this, “Our organization is opposed to the inhumane practice of cat declawing and we think it’s really admirable that you and City the Kitty are working to raise awareness about this important issue. We are actually in the process of working with our experts to revise and update our position on declawing. In the meantime, we are refraining from participating in proactive advocacy on the issue.”
How long does it take to “revise” a position and just be completely opposed to it especially when each day that goes by kitties are suffering needlessly. And how can one be all about protecting animals yet look the other way when the biggest opportunity to ever come along to truly end declawing in a state, is sitting in front of you on a silver platter?
It is hard to find the humanity or logic in the neutral position for this bill in NY, except that they don’t want to upset their large donors in the veterinary profession who want to keep declawing as a procedure for their veterinarians who make a good living amputating kitties toes and claws.
Here are their official position statements on declawing from ASPCA.org
7) NATIONWIDE insurance
Please be on the side of kitties too and stop enabling veterinarians to amputate cats’ toes. Your company, VPI paws, provides templates and helps veterinarians set up kitten “wellness” declaw special plans. This misleading many cat owners to think that amputating kittens toes is good for their health and wellness. They don’t even have a chance to show they can use scratchers and live a healthy life with these important body parts! When I reached out to you about this one of your sales managers said, ” We appreciate you reaching out and expressing your concerns. Please note that our priorities are always our members and their pets, as well as giving them the best options for medical and well care provided by licensed veterinarians.”
Here’s an example of a pdf from the website of an unethical vet in NY and his Premier Kitten Plan that you provided him and helped him set up. 
8) RED CROSS
You graciously allowed AAHA hospital to be the only vet hospital choice on your new Pet App. You are a healing force in the world and have a lot of influence and power. Please try to inspire AAHA to put accountability in the accreditation process and not give the AAHA standard of excellence to vet practices who declaw kitties. So many kitties are being disabled, tortured, and even dying under anesthesia and from complications. That’s NOT what the RED CROSS is all about for any kind of living being. There are MANY excellent veterinary practices with veterinarians who have made the right choice to NOT amputate kitties toes and they deserve to be on your app more than most of those AAHA hospitals who needlessly and INHUMANELY ruin cats’ lives. Ask these 3 kitties whose owners were talked out of using the soft paws at this highly regarded AAHA hospital that just wanted their owners money. Now, from complications they ALL have had most or all of their paws amputated from complications of the declaws.
When I reached out to your nice RED CROSS communications officer about this he wrote me this, “I shared your correspondence with our pet care advisor and the project manager for the American Red Cross Pet First Aid App. They have reviewed the information and stated that the purpose of the animal hospital locator is to provide cat and dog owners with the locations of nearby animal hospitals in case their pet is experiencing an emergency. Having access to this vital information can help save a pet’s life if the primary provider is unavailable or if the owners are outside of their local area. The Red Cross is not endorsing any of the animal hospitals. Decisions are left up to the owners.” 
9) Aesculight laser company
You promote your laser machines to the veterinary profession to amputate kitties toes. This makes me so sad. You had hundreds of testimonials on your website from cat owners saying how much they loved your laser burning off their kitties toe bones. (You took most of them down after we called you out on how appalling that was) It’s the number one procedure that vets use with your $40,000 lasers and they have to do a lot of them to pay back that bill. Please send your laser guru, Dr John Godbold, to promote and teach only healing procedures. There are studies that show laser declaw is no better than a scalpel or guillotine blade in fact they showed that complications were worse with a laser. More about the facts of laser declaw at pawproject.org/faq
Here is how they burn off the toe bones with their $40,000 lasers. This is a disturbing video but is what is happening in many veterinary practices in America [button href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmZtegow8bI” color=”red”] Laser Declaw Video-Warning, It is Disturbing & Graphic[/button]
Also here are some stories about how laser declaw is NO better than the scalpel or guillotine blade methods from veterinarians who didn’t buy the propaganda from these laser companies. (They do declaw cats with these other methods though)
Debunking the laser declaw myth
And another vet who uses the guillotine method but wants you to know the truth about lasers Truth about laser declawing
10) TEXAS COALITION FOR ANIMAL PROTECTION- TCAP
Your mission statement- TCAP IS A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION THAT PROVIDES COMPASSIONATE SOLUTIONS TO PET OVERPOPULATION AND COMMUNITY ANIMAL WELFARE and HIGH QUALITY PREVENTATIVE SERVICES. Here is a sign from one of your lobbies that was right next to your Humane Society of US award (who is very against declawing) Stacey Schumacher, Pres and Director made $276,000, 5 veterinarians for TCAP made from $205,000 to $131,000 each in 2014. How much of this money came from low cost declaws which your people told me you do LOTS OF THEM? Your people even say you will do 4 paw declaws for special circumstances. They say a cat jumping off a grandmother’s lap is a special circumstance.
You say that it keeps a cat in a home and is better than euthanizing.
There are HUNDREDS of declawed kitties in shelters near your clinics because of biting or litter box avoidance issues from the declaws. Take a look and see the betrayal in their faces. If you care so much about keeping a cat in a home and from being euthanized, why don’t you find every single one of these cats a new forever home? 
You say you don’t think it’s bad and do it in a humane way yet some of your vet colleagues in other practices say they see a lot of kitties that were declawed in your clinics with bad consequences and infections.
You are great at all the spay and neutering work. Keep it at that and stop hurting and maiming cats. It is not a preventative procedure. I reached out try to speak to Mrs Shumacher in emails and phone calls but she never returned my calls.
11) BANFIELD Pet Hospitals
In 2009 you banned tail docking and ear cropping and said this, “”After thoughtful consideration and reviewing medical research, we have determined it is in the best interest of the pets we treat, as well as the overall practice, to discontinue performing these unnecessary cosmetic procedures,” says Karen Faunt, vice president for medical quality advancement. “It is our hope that this new medical protocol will help reduce, and eventually eliminate, these cosmetic procedures altogether.”
So, that’s great you care about the welfare of dogs BANFIELD and saved them from these bad surgeries. Did you forget about us cats and how amputating our toes is far worse than these procedures as far as the pain and suffering and long term consequences? Some of your practices still recommend declawing and most don’t counsel clients about the humane alternatives or the negative consequences of declawing. 
12) VCA Hospitals
Be a leader and stop doing this mutilating procedure at your hundreds of hospitals. You speak out against it in this information but then give cat owners and your vets an out to perform this inhumane surgery. [button href=”http://www.vcahospitals.com/main/pet-health-information/article/animal-health/cat-behavior-problems-scratching-behavior-and-declawing/205″] Scratching behavior and declawing[/button]
13) ALLIANZ/FiremansFund
You include declawing in your insurance for veterinarians. The case of the 3 kitties who were declawed and had horrific complications, your rep told the cat owner at around the $60,000 mark that the cost to help heal them after most of their paws had to be amputated, was outrageous and it would be cheaper to put them to sleep and get new kitties. You can take the non-therapeutic and disabling procedure of amputating kitties toes out of your coverage for veterinarians. If they are forced to pay the health coverage bills, from the mutilation they cause in declaws, out of their pockets, they most likely wouldn’t do that horrific procedure. I reached out to Allianz in many emails and calls but never heard back from them. 
VETERINARIANS in North America who declaw cats
You took an oath to heal and help animals. Remember these words, “First Do No Harm.” Cat owners would listen to you if you instill a modern, humane, and healthy mindset in them that believes that the humane alternatives do work with a little patience and common sense. Declawing doesn’t keep a cat in a home and if you really cared about that concept you would be helping to find homes for all the declawed kitties that are sadly sitting in shelters after their owners threw them away because of biting and litter box avoidance issues from the declaw.
The newest propaganda going around is that your laser declaw is the way to go and is gentle, easy and painless. It’s NOT! You just need more money to pay off your $45,000 laser machines. Laser beams are used to burn through the cat’s toe joint instead of using a scalpel or guillotine blade. Studies have shown that it is no better and in fact the complications are worse for your kitty in the first two days after they burned off their toe bones. 
CAT OWNERS
Please take the time to use the humane alternatives to this mutilating and cruel procedure. Kitties need their toes and claws for so many aspects of their health and well-being. We live in modern times and it’s time for you to get up off your beloved sofas and get the appropriate scratchers for your kitties and train them. In this day and age with all the resources and information available about ways you can deal with scratching issues humanely and NOT amputate their toes, there is no excuse for this insanity. Wake up to the fact that declawing hurts, disables, and always causes long term negative consequences in cats. Respect the need to keep their important body parts intact. Here’s some valuable information to help you be a humane and compassionate cat owner who doesn’t amputate your cat’s toes and claws. Declawing Facts and Humane Options
Property Management companies that require declawing
Declawing is never necessary. A few months ago, I reached out to 3 large property management companies, IRET, Steadfast, and Flaherty and Collins, and after educating them about declawing and passionately asking them to be a modern company that cares about the welfare of cats, they took declawing out of their pet policies.
Only one that you told me about, simco-apts.com, chose to keep this horrific and cruel requirement in their pet policy and stay in the dark ages even after I respectfully tried to educate them on the facts about it. Declawing and Property Management Companies
Semi-famous and famous veterinarians
Please use your influence and fame to at least spread awareness about the humane alternatives to scratching issues. Even if you don’t want to upset all your groupie veterinarians who declaw kitties and lose their “likes” on your social media, it still will save a lot of kitties if you teach cat owners how to work with their kittens and cats on scratching issues and also how to use deterrents effectively.
Don’t be afraid of using the word declaw in ways that will inspire your vet followers to realize that they took an oath to heal animals and declawing goes completely against it. In the long run, you might just get more followers for doing the right thing and being on the right side of cat history.
Dr Andy Roark, when someone respectfully reaches out to YOU to try to inspire you to be a hero and save kitties from this horrific and unnecessary procedure, don’t take it as an attack, abuse, harassment, or cyber bullying. If they show you all the unethical things revolving around declawing that they are seeing and getting from supporters and whistle blowers , don’t take that as abuse, a threat, or twist it around and take hours of your valuable time writing a sad pity piece and call it , “I’m Being Cyber-Bullied.”
You got accolades and empathy to last a lifetime after publishing that, but guess what. Accolades for saving kitties from a lot of pain and suffering would truly warm your heart and give you more fulfillment than playing the victim game[button href=”https://citythekitty.org/the-victim-card-game/”] Playing the victim card[/button] This may help you to understand what true cyber bullying is and how it is a very serious subject that I do not condone and never have. [button href=”https://citythekitty.org/2635-2/”] Cyber Sniveling-How they play the victim[/button]
My mom and I are very passionate, caring, and simply trying to protect kitties paws from a well-known form of torture. You surely should agree that it has no place in your noble profession. If you chose for some very odd reason, to be a closet advocate, that does nothing to help save kitties or move veterinary medicine forward.
Dr Marty Becker wrote this amazing story after I also reached out to him last month to ask for help to spread awareness with the bill in NY. He most likely saved hundreds of kitties by writing this- [button href=”http://www.drmartybecker.com/veterinary-medicine/the-tragedy-of-post-declaw-pain-syndrome-and-how-to-help-cats-who-suffer-from-it/”] Dr Marty Beckers Declawing Story[/button]
Or this recent story by Dr Sarah Boston [button href=”http://drsarahboston.com/2015/12/15/we-need-to-talk-about-declaws/”] Dr Sarah Boston Declaw Story[/button]