OMG! One more reason to NOT declaw...

olitter (PawsForThought) wrote in message ...
Thanks for posting this. It just furthers my belief that Brandy should NEVER
have a cat and I definitely pity her cat. It was so obvious from her posts
that she was overstimulating the cat. Instead of investigating the cause of
her cat's behavior, she just mutilated it and now she lives on the River of
Denial.

Lauren
________

More than that, she continually tries to convince herself that what
she did to Kami was "ok" - despite the increased biting, antisocial
behavior, and failure to bear weight, that the cat exhibited. Any
person with an ounce of concern for their animal would be sorry for
inflicting such pain, and would vow to never do it again.

-L.

Arjun Ray wrote in message . ..
In ,
(-L.) wrote:
| Arjun Ray wrote in message . ..
| In ,
| (-L.) wrote:
| | "Sharon" wrote in message ...

|| And sometimes in a very few cases it needs to be an option. VERY FEW
|| CASES.

|| You are correct - in the cases where the claw is damaged beyond repair
|| and/or diseased. And that is the ONLY time declawing is necessary.
|
| All ten claws damaged beyond repair? All ten diseased simultaneously?
|
| Of course not. But there are cases where an injury or disease results
| in a claw needing removal. THAT was my point.

Yes, but *her* point - the "VERY FEW CASES" - was about all ten claws.
I think your "You are correct" was hasty.

Perhaps. There are "very few cases" where even *one* claw need be removed.

But of course, I'm preaching to the choir here...

-L.

Arjun Ray wrote in message . ..
In ,
(-L.) wrote:
| Arjun Ray wrote in message . ..
| In ,
| (-L.) wrote:
| | "Sharon" wrote in message ...

|| And sometimes in a very few cases it needs to be an option. VERY FEW
|| CASES.

|| You are correct - in the cases where the claw is damaged beyond repair
|| and/or diseased. And that is the ONLY time declawing is necessary.
|
| All ten claws damaged beyond repair? All ten diseased simultaneously?
|
| Of course not. But there are cases where an injury or disease results
| in a claw needing removal. THAT was my point.

Yes, but *her* point - the "VERY FEW CASES" - was about all ten claws.
I think your "You are correct" was hasty.

Perhaps. There are "very few cases" where even *one* claw need be removed.

But of course, I'm preaching to the choir here...

-L.

Katra wrote:
I paid for them to get him declawed. We felt, at this point, that it was
a choice between declawing him or getting rid of him. :-(

Anyone else?

You could keep the cat out of the baby's room instead of declawing it. You
really shouldn't have the baby around any pets unattended anyways. That's
pretty common sense.

Alice

--
The root cause of problems is simple overpopulation. People just aren't
worth very much any more, and they know it. Makes 'em testy. ...Bev
|\ _,,,---,,_ Tigress
/,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ http://havoc.gtf.gatech.edu/tigress
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-'
'---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat by Felix Lee.

Katra wrote:
I paid for them to get him declawed. We felt, at this point, that it was
a choice between declawing him or getting rid of him. :-(

Anyone else?

You could keep the cat out of the baby's room instead of declawing it. You
really shouldn't have the baby around any pets unattended anyways. That's
pretty common sense.

Alice

--
The root cause of problems is simple overpopulation. People just aren't
worth very much any more, and they know it. Makes 'em testy. ...Bev
|\ _,,,---,,_ Tigress
/,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ http://havoc.gtf.gatech.edu/tigress
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-'
'---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat by Felix Lee.

From: Katra

However, my sister has a cat that is all too ready with his claws
sometimes if something annoys him. It is a personality trait.

Obviously the cat was not properly handled or trained somewhere along the line.

The other day, he scratched the baby yet again for no good reason,

If they know the cat scratches, why was the cat around the baby?

See here the reason for our (very difficult) decision:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bleys/Dyson1yScrtch.jpg

I paid for them to get him declawed. We felt, at this point, that it was
a choice between declawing him or getting rid of him. :-(

I'm really sorry to hear you felt it necessary to mutilate the cat. You could
have tried Soft Paws, consulted with a feline behaviorist, or re-homed the cat.
People who have babies and cats need to supervise them together. Mutilating
the family pet should NEVER be an option.

Sign me disgusted,
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: Katra

However, my sister has a cat that is all too ready with his claws
sometimes if something annoys him. It is a personality trait.

Obviously the cat was not properly handled or trained somewhere along the line.

The other day, he scratched the baby yet again for no good reason,

If they know the cat scratches, why was the cat around the baby?

See here the reason for our (very difficult) decision:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bleys/Dyson1yScrtch.jpg

I paid for them to get him declawed. We felt, at this point, that it was
a choice between declawing him or getting rid of him. :-(

I'm really sorry to hear you felt it necessary to mutilate the cat. You could
have tried Soft Paws, consulted with a feline behaviorist, or re-homed the cat.
People who have babies and cats need to supervise them together. Mutilating
the family pet should NEVER be an option.

Sign me disgusted,
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

In article ,
Katra wrote:

Ok, so does anyone else have a VALID reason for declawing?
We have several cats and only one is declawed, and we got her from the
shelter that way. She does not appear to have any problems.

Normally, I DON'T believe in declawing as it is not necessary. I just
trim kittie claws on a regular basis with toenail clippers, or use
"pretty paws" claw caps. I don't have any furniture in the house that
can be ruined by clawing, and I provide the cats with sissal scratching
posts that they love.

However, my sister has a cat that is all too ready with his claws
sometimes if something annoys him. It is a personality trait.

The other day, he scratched the baby yet again for no good reason, and
the claw marks were right across his eye! That was too damned close. It
was just skin that was damaged and there was no damage to his eye. The
baby is 14 months old.

See here the reason for our (very difficult) decision:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bleys/Dyson1yScrtch.jpg

I paid for them to get him declawed. We felt, at this point, that it was
a choice between declawing him or getting rid of him. :-(

Anyone else?

K.

I hope that the surgery has earned this kitty a home for life, even if
it is no longer a pain-free healthy life. Too many declawed kitties end
up in shelters despite the surgery for me to paint the issue with a
broad brush and say that "if it's between losing the home and losing the
claws the claws have gotta go". I also hope that your vet used modern
methods and modern post-surgical analgesics. It's a lot harder on adult
cats to have to bear weight on their amputation sites, and to re-adjust
their walking style to compensate for the missing digits.

I'm not a mom (yet) but I'd like to think this would not be the decision
I would make in such a situation. You say that you clip your cats' claws
and use nail caps. If you had suggested such solutions to your sister
the baby would never have been harmed and the cat would not have had to
go through the painful amputation. There is a definite chance that a cat
that ALREADY "lashes out" will continue to "lash out" and, upon
realizing that his claws do not have the effect they once did, will turn
to his next line of defense: his teeth. Alternatively, he might use his
back claws if you left those to him. (I bear a definite, though tiny,
scar from the back claws of a terrified declawed cat that I had to pin
in the vet clinic for her to be treated. She knew exactly how to twist
to use those back claws for her defense.) No, performing a convenient
surgery on the pets I'm responsible for is not my idea of a way to
protect my children, let alone teach them the values I want them to
learn.

Furthermore without more details I can't accept your argument that the
baby was scratched for "no good reason". At 14 months isn't he grabbing
at everything, but without the fine motor control to keep from poking
kitty in the eye or pinching him mercilessly? If he didn't threaten the
cat on this occasion, surely he has before. I bet the cat thought he had
a good reason. Perhaps the *cat* should have been protected from the
*baby* during the beginning of the toddling stage.

I remember my mom telling the story of my young cousin toddling up to
her Sheltie as he ate his dinner, in relative peace after having been
harrassed by youngsters all day. Beaver (the dog) responded to the kid
invading his food dish (I believe he put his head down and pretended to
eat from it) by curling his lip and whipping his head around.
Unfortunately my cousin's head was in the way of Beaver's overbite and
he suffered a small cut on his forehead. No one blamed the dog. No one
offered to remove his teeth.

The simple answer is, no, I can think of no valid reason for declawing
MY cats. I won't make a judgement call on any one else's decision except
to say that if *I* were in that situation there would be ways around it,
and a new home or possibly even euthanasia, WITH claws, would be better
for MY cats than a painful amputation that takes away such a large part
of what a cat IS.

-Alison in OH

In article ,
Katra wrote:

Ok, so does anyone else have a VALID reason for declawing?
We have several cats and only one is declawed, and we got her from the
shelter that way. She does not appear to have any problems.

Normally, I DON'T believe in declawing as it is not necessary. I just
trim kittie claws on a regular basis with toenail clippers, or use
"pretty paws" claw caps. I don't have any furniture in the house that
can be ruined by clawing, and I provide the cats with sissal scratching
posts that they love.

However, my sister has a cat that is all too ready with his claws
sometimes if something annoys him. It is a personality trait.

The other day, he scratched the baby yet again for no good reason, and
the claw marks were right across his eye! That was too damned close. It
was just skin that was damaged and there was no damage to his eye. The
baby is 14 months old.

See here the reason for our (very difficult) decision:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bleys/Dyson1yScrtch.jpg

I paid for them to get him declawed. We felt, at this point, that it was
a choice between declawing him or getting rid of him. :-(

Anyone else?

K.

I hope that the surgery has earned this kitty a home for life, even if
it is no longer a pain-free healthy life. Too many declawed kitties end
up in shelters despite the surgery for me to paint the issue with a
broad brush and say that "if it's between losing the home and losing the
claws the claws have gotta go". I also hope that your vet used modern
methods and modern post-surgical analgesics. It's a lot harder on adult
cats to have to bear weight on their amputation sites, and to re-adjust
their walking style to compensate for the missing digits.

I'm not a mom (yet) but I'd like to think this would not be the decision
I would make in such a situation. You say that you clip your cats' claws
and use nail caps. If you had suggested such solutions to your sister
the baby would never have been harmed and the cat would not have had to
go through the painful amputation. There is a definite chance that a cat
that ALREADY "lashes out" will continue to "lash out" and, upon
realizing that his claws do not have the effect they once did, will turn
to his next line of defense: his teeth. Alternatively, he might use his
back claws if you left those to him. (I bear a definite, though tiny,
scar from the back claws of a terrified declawed cat that I had to pin
in the vet clinic for her to be treated. She knew exactly how to twist
to use those back claws for her defense.) No, performing a convenient
surgery on the pets I'm responsible for is not my idea of a way to
protect my children, let alone teach them the values I want them to
learn.

Furthermore without more details I can't accept your argument that the
baby was scratched for "no good reason". At 14 months isn't he grabbing
at everything, but without the fine motor control to keep from poking
kitty in the eye or pinching him mercilessly? If he didn't threaten the
cat on this occasion, surely he has before. I bet the cat thought he had
a good reason. Perhaps the *cat* should have been protected from the
*baby* during the beginning of the toddling stage.

I remember my mom telling the story of my young cousin toddling up to
her Sheltie as he ate his dinner, in relative peace after having been
harrassed by youngsters all day. Beaver (the dog) responded to the kid
invading his food dish (I believe he put his head down and pretended to
eat from it) by curling his lip and whipping his head around.
Unfortunately my cousin's head was in the way of Beaver's overbite and
he suffered a small cut on his forehead. No one blamed the dog. No one
offered to remove his teeth.

The simple answer is, no, I can think of no valid reason for declawing
MY cats. I won't make a judgement call on any one else's decision except
to say that if *I* were in that situation there would be ways around it,
and a new home or possibly even euthanasia, WITH claws, would be better
for MY cats than a painful amputation that takes away such a large part
of what a cat IS.

-Alison in OH

In article ,
enlightened us with...
Ok, so does anyone else have a VALID reason for declawing?

No, there isn't one.


However, my sister has a cat that is all too ready with his claws
sometimes if something annoys him. It is a personality trait.


Then he should be watched closely, have his claws trimmed, and/or have
them capped.

The other day, he scratched the baby yet again for no good reason,

How do you know? If he scratched the child and no one was there to stop
him, how could anyone know the baby didn't grab his tail, poke his eye,
or do something equally baby-ish? Babies grab things. It's just what
babies do. It's their job.

and
the claw marks were right across his eye! That was too damned close. It
was just skin that was damaged and there was no damage to his eye. The
baby is 14 months old.


And the parents were where?
And the cat was in the room because?

Come on, they know he can be evil. He should have been separated from
the baby when the baby was unattended or even as a last resort, rehomed
to a home with no small children.
I have a cat that I know would never tolerate a small child (read:
something that likes to follow her and grab her) were one to be in my
home. I would not remove her claws if I had a baby. I would make sure
she was never near the baby unattended.

If they had a dog they knew was a nipper, would they have removed his
teeth? I think not.

-------------------------------------------------
~kaeli~
Why do people who know the least know it the loudest?
If that cell phone was up your a$$, maybe you could
drive a little better!
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace
-------------------------------------------------