Is De-clawing a US thing?

I had never heard about it either before this newsgroup. Declawing is
illegal in Germany and I have never seen a declawed cat over here.
Looking at my cats and how skillfully they use their claws for all
kinds of stuff (defense, eating, climbing etc...) I think it is a very
cruel practice. There is millions of cats over here that have their
claws and there is no problems which in my opinion puts the whole
procedure into doubt.....

The biggest difference between here (US) and the UK, at least, is in the UK
cats are permitted to roam freely. In the US there is increasing pressure to
keep cats indoors exclusively. (To make it clear I do not declaw my cats.)
Vets, adoption organizations and Municipalities put pressure on people to
keep the cats indoors. Cats will be cats, they will scratch somewhere. Cats
don't instinctively take to the scratching post like they do a litter box. I
can understand how an owner faced with a cat that is ripping apart their
home and not having the information they need might turn to declawing as a
solution to the problem.

The solution here isn't to let the cats roam freely unless one lives out in
the country where there isn't the traffic, poisons or demon spawn children
etc. The solution is to educate cat owners early on to the products
available to encourage cats to scratch on appropriate things. I wish the
vets and adoption organizations would pass out information on this as a
matter of course. The vets could even make a buck off of it if they sold
these products like some do food and flea control. I think if a cat owner
were to get this information from a reliable source they would be more
willing to try behavior modification. I know I was skeptical about things
like the sticky tape and sprays until I heard from people here who have used
them successfully.




"Matt" wrote in message
om...
I had never heard about it either before this newsgroup. Declawing is
illegal in Germany and I have never seen a declawed cat over here.
Looking at my cats and how skillfully they use their claws for all
kinds of stuff (defense, eating, climbing etc...) I think it is a very
cruel practice. There is millions of cats over here that have their
claws and there is no problems which in my opinion puts the whole
procedure into doubt.....

The biggest difference between here (US) and the UK, at least, is in the UK
cats are permitted to roam freely. In the US there is increasing pressure to
keep cats indoors exclusively. (To make it clear I do not declaw my cats.)
Vets, adoption organizations and Municipalities put pressure on people to
keep the cats indoors. Cats will be cats, they will scratch somewhere. Cats
don't instinctively take to the scratching post like they do a litter box. I
can understand how an owner faced with a cat that is ripping apart their
home and not having the information they need might turn to declawing as a
solution to the problem.

The solution here isn't to let the cats roam freely unless one lives out in
the country where there isn't the traffic, poisons or demon spawn children
etc. The solution is to educate cat owners early on to the products
available to encourage cats to scratch on appropriate things. I wish the
vets and adoption organizations would pass out information on this as a
matter of course. The vets could even make a buck off of it if they sold
these products like some do food and flea control. I think if a cat owner
were to get this information from a reliable source they would be more
willing to try behavior modification. I know I was skeptical about things
like the sticky tape and sprays until I heard from people here who have used
them successfully.




"Matt" wrote in message
om...
I had never heard about it either before this newsgroup. Declawing is
illegal in Germany and I have never seen a declawed cat over here.
Looking at my cats and how skillfully they use their claws for all
kinds of stuff (defense, eating, climbing etc...) I think it is a very
cruel practice. There is millions of cats over here that have their
claws and there is no problems which in my opinion puts the whole
procedure into doubt.....

From: (Matt)

I had never heard about it either before this newsgroup. Declawing is
illegal in Germany and I have never seen a declawed cat over here.
Looking at my cats and how skillfully they use their claws for all
kinds of stuff (defense, eating, climbing etc...) I think it is a very
cruel practice. There is millions of cats over here that have their
claws and there is no problems which in my opinion puts the whole
procedure into doubt.....

The whole procedure is disgusting and sickening and I'm embarrassed to say
that the U.S. would do such a cruel act to cats

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

From: (Matt)

I had never heard about it either before this newsgroup. Declawing is
illegal in Germany and I have never seen a declawed cat over here.
Looking at my cats and how skillfully they use their claws for all
kinds of stuff (defense, eating, climbing etc...) I think it is a very
cruel practice. There is millions of cats over here that have their
claws and there is no problems which in my opinion puts the whole
procedure into doubt.....

The whole procedure is disgusting and sickening and I'm embarrassed to say
that the U.S. would do such a cruel act to cats

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

excuse me that should have read "if a cat owner was"

"Wendy" wrote in message
...
The biggest difference between here (US) and the UK, at least, is in the UK
cats are permitted to roam freely. In the US there is increasing pressure to
keep cats indoors exclusively. (To make it clear I do not declaw my cats.)
Vets, adoption organizations and Municipalities put pressure on people to
keep the cats indoors. Cats will be cats, they will scratch somewhere. Cats
don't instinctively take to the scratching post like they do a litter box. I
can understand how an owner faced with a cat that is ripping apart their
home and not having the information they need might turn to declawing as a
solution to the problem.

The solution here isn't to let the cats roam freely unless one lives out in
the country where there isn't the traffic, poisons or demon spawn children
etc. The solution is to educate cat owners early on to the products
available to encourage cats to scratch on appropriate things. I wish the
vets and adoption organizations would pass out information on this as a
matter of course. The vets could even make a buck off of it if they sold
these products like some do food and flea control. I think if a cat owner
were to get this information from a reliable source they would be more
willing to try behavior modification. I know I was skeptical about things
like the sticky tape and sprays until I heard from people here who have used
them successfully.




"Matt" wrote in message
om...
I had never heard about it either before this newsgroup. Declawing is
illegal in Germany and I have never seen a declawed cat over here.
Looking at my cats and how skillfully they use their claws for all
kinds of stuff (defense, eating, climbing etc...) I think it is a very
cruel practice. There is millions of cats over here that have their
claws and there is no problems which in my opinion puts the whole
procedure into doubt.....

excuse me that should have read "if a cat owner was"

"Wendy" wrote in message
...
The biggest difference between here (US) and the UK, at least, is in the UK
cats are permitted to roam freely. In the US there is increasing pressure to
keep cats indoors exclusively. (To make it clear I do not declaw my cats.)
Vets, adoption organizations and Municipalities put pressure on people to
keep the cats indoors. Cats will be cats, they will scratch somewhere. Cats
don't instinctively take to the scratching post like they do a litter box. I
can understand how an owner faced with a cat that is ripping apart their
home and not having the information they need might turn to declawing as a
solution to the problem.

The solution here isn't to let the cats roam freely unless one lives out in
the country where there isn't the traffic, poisons or demon spawn children
etc. The solution is to educate cat owners early on to the products
available to encourage cats to scratch on appropriate things. I wish the
vets and adoption organizations would pass out information on this as a
matter of course. The vets could even make a buck off of it if they sold
these products like some do food and flea control. I think if a cat owner
were to get this information from a reliable source they would be more
willing to try behavior modification. I know I was skeptical about things
like the sticky tape and sprays until I heard from people here who have used
them successfully.




"Matt" wrote in message
om...
I had never heard about it either before this newsgroup. Declawing is
illegal in Germany and I have never seen a declawed cat over here.
Looking at my cats and how skillfully they use their claws for all
kinds of stuff (defense, eating, climbing etc...) I think it is a very
cruel practice. There is millions of cats over here that have their
claws and there is no problems which in my opinion puts the whole
procedure into doubt.....

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 12:12:39 -0600, kaeli wrote:

Unfortunately, yeah, mostly US and Canada. Nasty - cutting off the cat's
toes. *sigh* Someday, hopefully, it will be illegal here.

Maybe it's not yet illegal, but I know a few vets who outright refuse to
do it for that reason, and more in our area outright discourage it.
Unfortunately, I also know of a few vets who won't skip a beat at the
request.

It seems that it gets mixed reviews to this day. The majority of vets in
our area acknowledge that declawing cats is potentially harmful (even just
a front declaw).

Here's hoping.

--
Dennis Carr - | I may be out of my mind,
http://www.dennis.furtopia.org | But I have more fun that way.
------------------------------------+-------------------------------

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 12:12:39 -0600, kaeli wrote:

Unfortunately, yeah, mostly US and Canada. Nasty - cutting off the cat's
toes. *sigh* Someday, hopefully, it will be illegal here.

Maybe it's not yet illegal, but I know a few vets who outright refuse to
do it for that reason, and more in our area outright discourage it.
Unfortunately, I also know of a few vets who won't skip a beat at the
request.

It seems that it gets mixed reviews to this day. The majority of vets in
our area acknowledge that declawing cats is potentially harmful (even just
a front declaw).

Here's hoping.

--
Dennis Carr - | I may be out of my mind,
http://www.dennis.furtopia.org | But I have more fun that way.
------------------------------------+-------------------------------

"Wendy" wrote in message
...
The biggest difference between here (US) and the UK, at least, is in
the UK
cats are permitted to roam freely. In the US there is increasing
pressure to
keep cats indoors exclusively. (To make it clear I do not declaw my
cats.)
Vets, adoption organizations and Municipalities put pressure on
people to
keep the cats indoors. Cats will be cats, they will scratch
somewhere. Cats
don't instinctively take to the scratching post like they do a
litter box. I
can understand how an owner faced with a cat that is ripping apart
their
home and not having the information they need might turn to
declawing as a
solution to the problem.

Hi Wendy ,
I don't see what the connection is between declawing and whether your
cat goes in or out . It's sounds more like an excuse to me. Surely
declawing has been around for many years before the big drive to keep
cats inside .
Some people do keep their cats inside in the UK , although they are
in the minority and some outdoor cats will scratch inside. The more
cats you have the more likely they will scratch inside.
Alison