God save cats from the American Pet Hospital in Las Vegas

I came across this veterinary practice via a Google declawing alert and in the few lines included in the alert there was such a stupid typo (Your fury little friend can be up and running the same day.) that I decided to read further and do you know, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. If this is the sum of their intelligence I don’t think they should be allowed near anyone’s pet, let alone allowed to approach an anaesthetised cat with a laser! The practice I’m talking about is
American Pet Hospital

702-952-41853879 E Sunset Road

Las Vegas, NV 89120
There was a link to their website but unsurprisingly the link is broken, read on to see their intelligence level. I’m going to highlight in red their stupidity. Please bear in mind that this is about a professional practice even though it appears to be written by a primary school child.

Business Information: American pest hospital has been providing veterinary care in Las Vegas for over 22 years. Along with our full service veterinary clinic we have professional dog grooming, cat grooming, and dog boarding.
Our services range from well checks for puppies to senior care for your older pets. American Pet Hospital is staffed with certified Veterinary technicians and 3 certified Doctors of Veterinarian Medicine. Your fury friend is in good hands with our experienced staff.
I’m wondering if the certified technicians (who incidentally seem to rank higher in precedence than the DVM’s) and the certified DVM’s are actually certified as insane rather than as professionals.
Along with our experience you will notice our love of all animals. (Where?) Our mission is to keeping your four legged friends healthy and happy! (And declawed)
American Pet Hospital is one of the few pet hospitals in Las Vegas that uses laser surgery. Laser surgery will make the procedure more comfortable for your pet. Also your pet will heal much faster with less pain. For example, our laser cat declawing procedure will have your cat back on his feet with out pain in the same day! This is ridiculous, misleading and untrue! What cat given a general anaesthetic and subjected to at least ten amputations is going to be up and running the same day...or the next?

Near Sunset & Pecos. Close to Henderson, NV & Las Vegas, NV
If your pet is suffering from the following symptoms your pet needs veterinary care

* injuries

* diarrhea

* weight loss

* fur loss

* no appetitive

* scratching ears

* red irritated skin

* vomiting

* discharge from eyes or nose

* problems going potty

In my country potty means foolish, crazy, batty, eccentric, silly, ridiculous, absurd and stupid.
Every word on this list seems to apply to this shower of certified lunatics.
American Pet Hospital is one of the few veterinary clinics in Las Vegas that performs laser surgery for your pets. This is good news for your pet (d’you think so?) because laser surgeries are far more comfortable than a regualr scalpel surgery. Come on - comfortable???
American pet hospital is one of the few veterinary clinics in the world that allows illiterate nincompoops to run riot on their website!

Your pet heals much faster with laser surgery, and there is less chance of complications.
A laser cat declaw is a popular procedure. (my highlighting - isn't this disgraceful and isn't this blatant disregard of the AVMA joke, I mean policy, that states:

Declawing of domestic cats should be considered only after attempts have been
made to prevent the cat from using its claws destructively or when its clawing
presents a zoonotic risk for its owner(s))

How can a last resort procedure be popular?

To continue Your fury little friend can be up and running the same day. Before a cat declaw could take 3 – 4 weeks for the cats to heal completely.
A Freudian slip maybe, because your little friend would certainly be feeling fury and I very much challenge the claim that he’ll be up and running the same day. This 3-4 weeks to heal completely is an improvement on the usual guff about 2 weeks, this is the only semi-sensible bit as far as I can see, and even then it completely misses the point that a declawed cat can never heal psychologically.

Laser surgery
A Less Painful Alternative for Your Pet
American Pet Hospital is proud to offer laser surgery as a progressive new option for our clients who want the safest and least painful treatment for thier pets. Long used in human healthcare, laser technology is a proven service with multiple applications. Only recently have veterinarians turned to laser surgery, and we are proud to be on the leading edge of advanced animal care. In many cases, laser surgery can be extremely beneficial over traditional surgery. Your veterinarian will discuss whether laser surgery is the best option for your pet.

The Benefits
Less Pain - The laser seals nerve endings as it moves through tissue. Your pet will feel less pain after surgery.

Less Bleeding - The laser seals small blood vessels during surgery, resulting in less bleeding and quicker procedures.

Less Swelling - With laser technology, only light comes into contact with the tissue, causing minimal swelling.

Extreme Precision - The laser enables your sergeon to only affect or remove the target tissue, leaving the healthy surrounding tissue untouched.

Reduced Risk of Infection - The high heat of laser energy kills bacteria and microorganisms as it moves through diseased areas, reducing the chance of infection.

Quicker Recovery - For all of the above reasons, your pet is likely to feel less discomfort after surgery, and return home to normal activities sooner. Normal activities have had it once the toe ends have gone!

How it Works
A laser is an intense beam of light. Using an instrument that allows it to be precisely controlled, the laser beam replaces the traditional scalpel.
Laser energy instantly vaporizes the water found in tissus, allowing it to "cut" or essentially remove an extremely small area of tissue. The energy seals nerve endings and blood vessels as it moves through the tissue, resulting in less bleeding, less pain and virtually no trauma to surrounding tissue.(Just charring to what is left of the toe)
Recommended Procedures for Laser Surgery
Declaw here we go folks, get your wallets out
Spay
Neuter
Tumor Removal
Skin Tags
Cyst Removal
Soft Palate Procedures
Gingival and Dental SUrgery
...and much more I can well believe that in this madhouse!
Consult with your veterinarian to determine if laser surgery is the best option for your pet's specific condition.
You have to be joking, mind you, it could be even worse than I think…the veterinarian might have written this…………

Don't you have to seriously question the competence of any veterinary practice that is content with allowing this sort of rubbish online

This Rookie Vet Appalls Me!

Well now, recently we have been treated to the wisdom of a wet-behind-the-ears vet, who graduated in July from the Purdue School of Veterinary Medicine, having had all of approximately three months experience she now feels qualified to speak about declawing. This youngster’s name is Lechlitner, which sounds like the name of a mushroom to me so perhaps Fungus would be a nice new name for her.

Fungus is the proud ”pet parent” of a cat, a dog and a python and she says she spends much of her time educating owners on preventative medicine and keeping the pets they love happy and healthy. She works for Banfield, much featured in the Declaw Hall of Shame of course because it promotes declawing.

So our little minx is naturally totally brainwashed, and we can well imagine the preventative medicine she educates cat owners with, especially those cat owners who are in thrall to their soft furnishings. Being young and full of herself and her recent qualifications Fungus has this to say about herself on her Facebook page

“I'm living in Austin, TX now and it is hotter than the blazes of hell. We're breaking a record for number of days over 100. I'm in my third week of work at Banfield here and I really like it. I think it's just like every other clinic, except when I leave I walk through PetSmart...so that's a little weird. I get to do a cystotomy tomorrow, so that should be fun... ”Can't wait to hear from y'all! (Like how I said y'all?)

It’s just like every other clinic in the same way that Auschwitz was like every other prison maybe? Hmmm?

Anyway, here is what our little fungi has to say in her very important blog.

I am appalled with the current legislation push in California cities to ban declawing vets. So what? Who cares about your opinions pet?

While there are opposing views within the veterinary community as to whether or not cats should be declawed, I maintain that we are the experts on this subject and should decide for ourselves, with the cat parents, on performing the procedure. (Oh I'm a vet, me, me, look at me, I'm important, I want to decide)

Haha, “we are the experts”, baby girl you have a long way to go before you’re an expert. And as for “we should decide for ourselves with the cat parent on performing the procedure” well, where is the decision? Banfield is for declawing, she is an employee of Banfield, the damned “cat parents” obviously want their cat’s toes hewn off or they wouldn’t be there in the first place so what the hell decision is there apart from the date and time of the butchery? And while I’m on – “cat parent” for crying out loud it makes me puke, what parent would request, nay insist on, the sawing or burning off of their offspring’s digits? Give me a break dear, grow up and stop playing mummies and daddies.

When the procedure is performed with appropriate anesthesia, pain management, and post-surgical care, the results are usually good.

When it is? WHEN it is? I think she could have phrased that a bit better if she wanted to convince us non believers, perhaps she could have said “because the procedure…” or was it a Freudian slip? The crux of it though is that she says the results are “usually” good. Behind that word usually I wouldn’t mind betting there is a wealth of pain and trauma experienced by those cats whose results were far from good. But which I’m equally sure there are no statistics kept of, and the details of which are glossed over.

Cats that are declawed must always be indoor pets. Cat parents should discuss with their veterinarian their concerns. Their concerns about their couch? Their drapes? Or about little Johnny being scratched when he pulls Kitty’s tail? Or their concerns for their elderly parents who are well over 50 and in their dotage and the cat might claw their arm clean off their shoulder with one swipe because it is so mean and feisty. Or the landlord might not let them move into the soopah doopah flat of their dreams if they have the temerity to own, sorry be a cat parent to, a clawed feline. Such pressing concerns, of course our Fungus is going to counsel them in their hour of need and then bring to bear her expertise and decide with them to rip those claws out, foregone conclusion of course…Banfield loves declawing the way Walter Wall loves carpets!

I do not believe that city council members are equipped to make blanket decisions as to how veterinarians should practice. I do not think (most) veterinarians are so equipped either; this is because they are either barely out of “diapers” or because they are blinded by the great US dollar. In fact many city council members are “cat parents” themselves (sick bag needed over here please) and so make their decision based on their own experience and their own feelings as to the right or wrong of declawing. And oh, happy day, as we know, recently Santa Monica, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Beverly Hills and hopefully Berkeley today have all made their decisions and voted to kick declawing up the ass in their cities.

If an individual veterinarian chooses not to perform the procedure, that is one thing, but government deciding how he or she should practice medicine is quite another. Wooo, you can’t dispute the bairn’s logic can you? If you decide to make a cup of tea that is one thing, but woe betide anyone advising you to use a different brand of teabag because, shock horror, that is quite another! I think I’ll nominate her statement as the most asinine of the year, waste of space? Not arf!

However, I think that the vets in cities surrounding those with declaw bans are going to see a nice increase in their business.

Oh you little madam, how smug you are, how I wish a declawed cat would demonstrate to you his/her nice little sharp fangs and how he/she now uses them instead of the claws, on the toe ends, that went away in a yellow surgical waste bag. And how I’m wishing that a declawing ban will spread right across the USA in an unstoppable tide of compassion. Sadly compassion is in short supply for some “cat parents” but there are many, many wonderful people in the USA who have devoted years of their lives to fighting the wickedness that is declawing. Thank God for them!

Baby vets like this one are dangerous, they think they know it all and unfortunately they are in a position to give clients advice that is flawed & biased, and downright dodgy if they are employed by Banfield.

Egg on Bok's face

When that bell rang in the council chambers putting an end to Mr Egg Box’s frenzied, spluttering flawed argument against a ban on declawing he was literally sweating buckets, he was pale, eyes shifting and making hand gestures, the classic signs of a liar. But the best was yet to come as several of the council members questioned him further about his reasoning, he must have felt as though he was roasting on a spit as they one by one pierced him with a querying gaze and put him right on the spot.
For a man who put up the brilliant poster from the Paws Project on his website he had certainly turned his snout against the wind. When asked to give facts and figures, he couldn’t, when asked to give the percentages of clawed and declawed cats that are surrendered, and re-homed, he couldn’t! He said it was too difficult! I don’t think he spent a lot of time in preparation for his moment of glory, what a disappointment for his paymaster.

But he had plenty to say about how cats will be killed if they cannot be declawed. What manner of thinking is this? How do we make the leap from cats being as nature intended, fully clawed, in homes in all the countries where declawing is banned to cats in Santa Monica, (and all the other cities and states of the USA barring West Hollywood), being killed because they have claws and their “cat guardians” (to use Mr Box’s terminology) don’t want to have to give houseroom to a clawed cat? In fact he stated that these cat guardians will be FORCED to relinquish their cats if they cannot have them declawed. Does that mean that the same people are FORCED to have a cat then? Is it a requirement of the city that everyone whether they like it or no must own a cat? No, I didn’t think so either. Can this man not see that because declawing is so readily available it actually stops people trying to educate themselves on the subject of living alongside those offensive claws?

He said, and it must have been tongue in cheek because as a past manager of animal shelters he will know better, that declawing is a last resort. You can’t tell me that someone with 30 years experience in the care and “control” of animals hasn’t heard every last excuse in the book, he will know that declawing is no last resort but he chose to lie through his teeth and say that more cats would be surrendered if the option of declawing was banned. He chose to keep quiet about how many declawed cats are surrendered because of problems associated with declawing, and he failed to mention that declawed cats with behavioural or physical problems following declawing sit there in the shelters being passed by once the would be adopter finds out that Fluffy pees on the bed or poops on the couch, or bites the bairn when he pulls her tail. Or that Fluffy is no fun anymore she just sits and mopes and washes or bites at her sore stumps instead of entertaining the family in return for her keep.

He falls back on the age old argument, comparing neutering with declawing, he calls them both mutilation, with a little wiggle of his fingers to imply speech marks, shouldn’t a man of his experience appreciate the difference between surgery performed for the benefit of the cat’s health, and to save millions of unwanted kittens being born only to be destroyed, and surgery performed purely for the owners convenience and to the detriment of the cat? He also compares cutting off the ear tips of feral cats, admittedly a sad thing, with declawing, but again he fails to realise that removing an ear tip, and unless I’m wrong here the ears do not have a lot of pain receptors so the cat is more than likely unaware that the ear tip is gone, potentially saves a female feral cat from the trauma of being trapped twice, anaesthetised twice and operated on twice. Now that is potentially life threatening so the ear tipping is fully justified.
He also tried to make out that a vet performing a declawing procedure is saving a life. No Mr Bok, emergency surgery saves lives, neutering saves lives, feral trapping, neutering, ear tipping and releasing saves lives but declawing most certainly doesn’t save lives. Declawed cats still end up abandoned, straying, sitting in shelters, lying in gas boxes or being injected with poison, and disposed of in sacks and incinerators. Had he bothered to keep a count of the cats relinquished to the three shelters he managed he would have known that.

Mr Bok is certainly obsessed with killing cats; he seems to regard any cat that is not declawed as dead meat. That was just about the only thing he was clear on, most other things he flannelled his way through, saying it was too difficult to track such information to give statistics or that such statistics didn’t exist. He conjured up a figure of 55% and claimed this percentage of owners would dump their cats if they could not have them declawed. But how many of those people, if they knew that there was no option of having a cat declawed, would adopt a cat in the first place? And surely this is a good thing, that someone who has no regard for the health and well-being of a cat but thinks of it merely as another possession to pretty up the house with and to be altered and adapted for this purpose, should opt not to own a cat after all.

Bok also told us that Mayor Stern, of Malibu has said that he would have taken his cat to the pound if he couldn’t have declawed it due to his wife’s health issues. Well firstly it begs the question why did Mayor Stern acquire a cat when his wife has a health issue? And furthermore how does Mayor Stern think those people with health issues in countries where declawing is rightly banned manage to keep a cat and stay alive?

No one seems prepared to take responsibility for his or her own safety – why?

Thankfully despite Egg Box’s best efforts the council members were wiser than he and they voted to ban declawing in Santa Monica.

He's now trying to justify what he said to save face, but it's too late - he already has egg on it.