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the smallest things movements erupt. I posted one shot news item on cat
declawing, stating my preference for getting my next cat declawed, and didn't
think much about it. And then the emails started coming in...
Blog
excerpts on this page follow in chronological order, from first to last.
Newer additions are added on the bottom.
May
9, 2003
West Hollywood, a
community that's sort of the poster child for the loopy new-agey type of
thing most of the middle of the country associates with California, has done
it again.
WEST HOLLYWOOD,
California (Reuters) - The liberal enclave of West Hollywood has become
the first city in the United States to ban "pet guardians"
(also known as pet owners) from removing the claws of their cats.
The ban on declawing
will apply to veterinarians in the two-square-mile (5.2-sq-km) city,
which last year decreed that pet owners should be known as pet
"guardians" and their pets referred to as "companion
animals."
Declawing is already
condemned by more than a dozen European nations, where cat owners opt
instead for regular nail clipping, better training or claw caps.
Well, whatever. I think
that cats get over it fine after limping for a few days, and I had thought
that my next cat (if there ever is one) would be declawed and an entirely
indoor cat. Don't want kitty getting outside and into fights, sick,
cuts, eaten by coyotes, etc. And true, there's not a complete need for no
claws on kitty just because it lives inside, but kitty certainly doesn't
need them to be happy, and I would like to have some really nice
furniture, thank you.
May
10, 2003
I made somewhat of a
throwaway remark yesterday about a law in West Hollywood that banned
declawing cats. I said declawing wasn't a big deal and kitty would
get over it soon enough. No one mailed in with their positive declawing
stories, but there was a mail about it. It's from Martin, and he's
not exactly a fan of the veterinary procedure.
I probably won't be the
only writing to you about this part of your blog, or maybe I am, but to
be honest I was highly surprised and quite outraged to ready something
like that from you. "A cat will get over it fine after limping for
a couple of days"... ok, so how would you like it if your mom comes
along and sees you picking your nose, then decides she doesn't like it
very much for you to do that so well since you don't really need your
nail she has them all pulled out... you'll get over it and you won't be
able to pick your nose, sounds nice doesn't it?
The statement
"kitty certainly doesn't need them to be happy, and I would like to
have some really nice furniture" is one that I would expect from
one of those unthinking American rednecks that you often write about. I
mean kitty doesn't need claws to be happy? Come on, how do you know what
a cat needs to be happy? Maybe in your way of thinking a cat doesn't
need claws when it's just inside, no need to climb trees and such huh?
Well, let me lecture for a little bit here... when you have a cat purely
indoors it has a very small territory, no matter how big your house is,
compared to it's natural habitat where it will roam for miles and miles
it is tiny, this will make your cat become bored as hell... you've
probably noticed that cats who are kept indoors sleep a lot more than
cats who also come outside. This is mostly because indoor cats generate
a lot more of the amino acid tryptophane, which makes them sleepy, it's
a sign of stress and one of the "outlets" of that stress is to
sleep it off. Another way to relieve stress is to stretch out muscles,
one way of that is sharpening claws, which gives good tension on the
muscles in it's lower front leg. You can compare it with when you have
sat behind your keyboard for a long time and finally come up, arch your
back, raise your arms up and lock your fingers/hands together and
stretch them out... without those claws your cat cannot properly stretch
its "fingers"... so one of the stress-outlets is gone... let's
sleep some more then.
Besides that it is
fairly easy to teach a cat not to scratch on your furniture, all you
need is a specific scratching pole and from young on put her with the
front paws on the pole and pull them down on the surface of the pole, it
will trigger the scratching reflex... if she still wants to scratch
elsewhere you just spray a couple of drops of water on her whenever she
starts, in no time she'll learn where she can and where she can't do it.
Me and my wife have cats and our furniture is fine. clipping the cat's
nails is a matter of 2 minutes once in every 2-3 weeks, the cats don't
mind it at all. So please don't go the cruel "claw pulling"
way with a possible new kitty, it's absolutely unnecessary!
Sorry if this all sounded a bit harsh, but I find this nail pulling
absolutely barbaric... it's how they used to get confessions... probably
still do it that way in the darker pars of the world.
Actually it's a lot worse
than he says, since you grow your fingernails back. And so would
kitty, if they just pulled the claws out. They actually amputate the ends
of the toes, getting the claw and the first knuckle or so, to keep the
claw from growing back out.
The torture reference
isn't quite accurate either though, since kitty is knocked out for the
surgery. Having your fingernails pulled wouldn't be such a big deal
if you were unconscious during it. Though I'm sure it hurts when you come
out of it.
Looking for some more
info on this, I Googled on "cat declawing" and found um, 12,100
results. The first one is this
page on the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights site, and
it has a decent run down of the relevant information. As you would
probably guess from the name of the organization, they are pretty much of
Martin's opinion on the issue.
A Painful Surgery
Surgical claw removal
or declawing is called onychectomy. By any name, it is an extreme
measure in which the entire last part of the ten front toes are
amputated. A graphic comparison in human terms would be the cutting off
of a person's finger at the last joint.
General anesthesia is used for this surgery, which always has a certain
degree of risk of disability or death associated with it. Because
declawing provides no medical benefits to cats, even slight risk can be
considered unacceptable. In addition, the recovery from declawing can be
painful and lengthy and may involve postoperative complications such as
infections, hemorrhage, and nail regrowth. The latter may subject the
cat to additional surgery.
A less invasive procedure, called tenotomy or deep digital flexor
tendonectomy, sometimes is done. In this procedure, the tendons
controlling the claws are severed without removing the claws. Although
postoperative problems are lessened by this procedure, the risks
associated with general anesthesia and the ethical question of
performing surgery which does not benefit the patient still apply.
Another link goes
to this page, which promotes laser surgery for declawing. Yes,
laser surgery. But it's not some sort of magical removal, they're
still cutting off the toes. It's just with a frickin' laser beam,
for people who want to pay 10x as much for the same result, based on vague
assurances of less pain and faster recovery time. Best suited for
James Bond's cat, I think.
A third prominent result is
this page on the Paw Project site, which appears to be an entire
website devoted solely to preventing declawing. I had no idea this
was such an issue for so many people. The Paw Project page has a bunch of
reasons why you shouldn't get kitty declawed. It gets a bit iffy
when they get into phantom amputation pain, but they make some sound
points as well.
Despite looking a bit
more, I literally can not find a page that promotes declawing. Every
page that has any info about it says it's a bad idea that may have
numerous negative consequences such as ruining the cat's gait, giving it
arthritis, making it a biter, causing it issues with using the litter box,
giving it a complex, making it timid or overly aggressive, etc.
Pretty much anything bad you can think of, someone cites as a likely side
effect. Not that this suggests they have an agenda or anything, mind
you.
Anyway, I suppose I'll
rethink my initial knee jerk "declaw it before it grows used to
them" comment. I basically think we don't need to coddle
animals so much. Humans are pussies. So to speak. We get
a tiny scratch and make much of it. Animals rip their arm off or lose an
ear or an eye in a fight and think nothing of it. The human pain
threshold is so tiny compared to animals, that it's silly to compare
losing a finger to a cat losing one, since the cat can take it and humans
can't. At least not as well. Aside from certain unbelievably
manly hikers, that is.
May
11, 2003
Just a quick follow up to
the last two days of cat declawing commentary. I couldn't find a
website yesterday that advocated it, but fortunately a reader came
through. Not with a website, but with a personal rant.
What does a house cat
need with its claws? A house cat does not need to fend off attackers or
kill its own food. It will be fine without its claws. The cat is not a
human being and is not afforded the rights prescribed thereto. If my cat
must be somewhat uncomfortable because it cannot sharpen its claws and
go through a few days of post-surgery discomfort so that I do not have
to repair furniture then I have to say tough shit.
People who devote their
time to the plight of declawed kittens need to seriously reevaluate
their lives. There are more worthy causes out there.
--Tom
So there. Let's hope no
one alerts PETA about this.
May
12, 2003
In what I hope
think will be the last bit of discussion about cat declawing for a while,
here's a new mail from Martin, who wrote two days ago with the first,
"You must be nuts to support kitty declawing." He's commenting
on the mail from the pro-declawing Tom that I quoted yesterday.
I started a reply on
this, but about halfway into it I thought it's not a worthy cause to
devote my time to =) I'll never be able to explain to guys like Tom why
I think hurting innocent animals for no other reason than that you don't
want to put some time into training them is a barbaric act.
I have no opinion, since
neither Tom nor Martin has made a donation
to the site expenses this month. In fact by that logic, the only
one who gets a vote is Donnie. You can change this though, if you
wish. *hint*
I bring this up mostly to
work in the following quote, which cracked me up. It's from Malaya,
who, when asked her opinion on declawing, said:
I would never declaw
kitty. It leaves them defenseless.
Except for their nasty
"can kill a human" mouth.
And this from a woman who
has yet to get through an hour of phone talk (with me) without yelping at
least once from kitty being in her lap and deciding his bed needs a bit of
tenderizing.
May
13, 2003
Okay, this really is the last
day of comments on cat declawing. Another reader has a rant on the
subject, this time arguing against cat declawing. Here's Michael.
People who have their cats
declawed are missing great fun. Ever see a helpless rodent run(or helplessly
limp away, rather) from a cat, only to be mauled and eaten? I see this every
day! What entertainment! My oldest cat is a 21 pound big ass black cat. Claws
are about 2 inches long. Declaw cats? What the flying fuck? You have to chop
off its genitals, give it a whole shit load of goddamned shots, then you go
ahead and chop off its claws? Haven't they done enough? First we breed cats
down to the genetic equivalents of deflated basketballs, slice off their
cocks, pump them full of drugs, and force them to play with fucking yarn the
rest of their meaningless lives.
Show your future cat(s) a
shred of decency and let them keep their claws. What's the point in having a
clawless and dickless cat? You could just buy a fucking plush toy! Fuck these
yuppie cocksuckers and their furniture. If they wanted "nice"
furniture, they wouldn't buy a damn cat.
Clawed cats: For when you
absolutely need a yard full of dead woodland furry creatures.
I do like his closing quote
thought. Assuming you actually live near a woodland.
Interesting how the smears by
cultural grouping are flying over this issue. The initial email on the
subject said I was a redneck for wanting a future kitty declawed, and now we've
come full circle, to cat declawers being called yuppies by someone who talks
like a redneck when he decries them.
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