I agree that the AVMA and veterinarians need to do a better job. It’s definitely a difficult situation, because how can you prove that an owner has done the proper amount of training. I don’t like declawing but I would rather see it done on a young kitten rather than an older cat.

At our clinic, we don’t include a declaw in any “deal” or package. When kittens come in for the first exam we explain to owners how to trim the nails and talk to them about scratching posts. No, pain relief is not “optional” for declaws and we like to use buprenorphine for that.

The only excuse for declawing is to save a paw or a pad from injury or disease. Laser or scalpel, it’s a barbaric mutilation for the lazy and those who are too dense to bother learning about the behaviour of an animal they are responsible for.

Ironically, declawed cats are more prone to biting behaviour so the immunosuppressed and the elderly who have their cats declawed are more likely to end up hurt from infected cat bites. Bites contain more pathogenic bacteria than scratches.

With babies and children, neither should be unsupervised around any animal. They should all be taught how to handle and animal gently and with respect.

Oddly enough, in the UK where declawing is illegal, our hospitals are not clogged up with scratched up children or the elderly, nor our our homes ripped to shreds. We know that animals never do anything without a reason. No cat ever scratched any human without a reason. Our veterinary governing body would strike off any vet who carried out convenience onychectomy. The AVMA doesn’t police it’s own rules or the vets who are members.

When it is banned (it will be) it won’t be bad for cats. Did you know that declawed cats are relinquised in large numbers to shelters because of elimination issues, fear aggression etc? Well, those cats are often deemed unrehomeable, and so end up euthanased. No one ever goes to a shelter asking for a peeing, biting cat do they?

Vets and techs often just sell declaw as part of a spay/neuter/vaccinate deal. It’s not explained in detail to clients very often. Do you tell your clients that it involves multiple amputations? What pain relief does your vet offer? Some vets only offer analgesia as optional! Imagine - major abdominal surgery and ten amputations in one day without pain relief!

Thanks for an interesting article about scratching behaviour, but please don’t just ignore the wholesale butchery of healthy cats’ paws that happens every single day in America, all because of laziness and the lust for money by vets who should know better!