clawsforever

I'm all for Declawing - NOT!

2010-10-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

By Stumpy the Cat

To the human-people who are interested in declawing cat-people
A few days ago I read a post by a human-person from Canada who wrote that she was all in favour of front declaw. As a cat-person who knows a bit about declawing I think she may be under a misapprehension so I’d like to make sure she knows what is involved before she makes her own appointment to be declawed.
As you know human-people have three knuckle joints on each finger, these knuckles are like hinges, they allow you to move your fingers in such a way as to be able to look after yourselves e.g. use cutlery, brushes & combs, they also allow you to work and to play. Well cat-people are not so very different, although our hands, which we call paws, look different to yours we also have three knuckles in our fingers and we use them to look after ourselves too. We use them to groom ourselves, to exercise ourselves by sticking our claws into something and having a good stretch of all the complex muscles in our legs, chests and backs (Have you noticed how our backs are always curved? Is it any wonder we need to have a good long stretch out?) We also use our fingers and claws to defend ourselves against pretty much anyone who wants to have a go at us. But we differ slightly from human-people who can balance on only 2 feet, we cat-people have to walk on our hands and feet and we use our last joints of our toes to walk on, so you can see how important our toes are, this is what makes me think this human-person from Canada isn’t in possession of all the facts. So to make it quite clear and to save her from getting a big shock when she is declawed I have asked my human-person to help me illustrate declawing.

In the first picture do you see the perfection of the hand? All that flexibility of the fingers is neatly covered in skin, ideally that skin would never need to be wounded in any way, you wouldn’t imagine cutting into it unless it was for something extremely serious would you? For example to save the flexibility of the fingers. You wouldn’t imagine cutting into such a work of art to sabotage the flexibility would you? Our paws are similar to your hands but as well as the neat parcel made of skin we also have fur covering our perfect “hands”, and we have plump pads underneath to cushion our paws for when we walk up on our toes. Really when you study hands, or paws, they are miraculous aren’t they?

Look in the second picture at what range of movement the human-person has, the right finger ends grip the pen, the other fingers on the hand fold neatly into the palm of the hand, while the left fingers hold the glass, they exert pressure on the glass so it doesn’t fall over. And they lift it to the human-mouth for her to drink from the glass. Cat-people’s toes are also useful like this; some of us like to use our toes and claws to hook up chunks of food, some of the more unfortunate cat-people rely on their claws to catch foods to eat, though the ones who are really unfortunate are the ones who have been through this declawing procedure and then found themselves having to hunt for their own food. They have no hunting equipment and no defence weapons, in short they are doomed!

But anyway on to the declawing procedure for this human-person’s enlightenment.

A human-person going to be declawed would have an advantage over a cat-person because she will know the reason why she is denied food and water the night before the op, cat-persons do not know this, they do not know what is going to happen to them until they are put in their basket and taken to the surgery where a nurse-person takes them from their human-person and put them in a cage. This Canadian-person will be put into a bed to await her surgery.

Shortly after that an anaesthetic-person will come to her and she will be given a lot of strong things to make her sleepy, among the things given to cat-people might be Xylazine which can make us vomit (and which is often used for that very purpose under other circumstances) it can also make muscle tremors, seizures, slowed heart rate and slowed breathing rate happen to us. And even worse it says that despite appearing completely sedated, cats can still move, even kick, bite or scratch, in response to sharp auditory stimulation. This is so frightening isn’t it? What about pain stimulation? Also we might be given Acepromazine which doesn’t always work if the patient is already excited and sometimes makes us aggressive.
And if that happens then sometimes Ketamine is used, that isn’t very nice as it gets sprayed into our mouths or eyes. It is a terrifying thing for cat-people to be treated like this because they do not understand. At least the Cari-person will understand.

The anaesthetic-person might also sick on her a pain relief patch, this is to relieve pain that she will not yet be feeling, but sticking it on pretty much confirms that there is going to be pain and that when that pain comes it will be too severe to wait for pain relief to be given then. Have you ever had a tooth out and felt the throb of something that isn’t there? That happens when limbs and digits are removed. Aren’t our bodies strange and complex that we can feel pain, sometimes for years afterwards in parts of us that no longer exist? These are called phantom pains; sadly these pains are all too real and well proven to exist.

Ok then, the patient is now asleep and lying down although my human-person who is demonstrating a human declawing is sitting up, she has not had the anaesthetic of course. I would not ask that of her.

So, can you see in picture 3 what happens? Declawing isn’t declawing after all is it? It is de-finger-end-ing, the human-persons 10 finger ends, along with her nails, have been amputated! They are lying there on the table quite separate to the rest of the finger. “Is this meant to be, or is this a big mistake?” you might ask, the answer would be no, it is no mistake THIS is what happens when you are declawed. Those very useful ends of our fingers are removed and thrown away!

Can you see all the blood? This is because the surgeon-person has used a scalpel or clippers to cut through all the bits inside that make the fingers work and through that perfect skin that encases and protects them. It is not always done like this. Sometimes the surgeon-person uses a strong, hot beam of light called a laser and burns through the fur, skin, cartilage, nerves, blood vessels and bone to get the finger end off. Because they are burned the blood vessels are sealed off so they cannot bleed, but they are charred instead. And the result is the same; the end of the finger or toe is gone. Some people say this method is not cruel; I would like to ask them how so? Are the ends of our toes any less gone? No.

In this demonstration though the human-persons finger ends were lopped off with a sharp scalpel so there is a lot, a hell of a lot, of blood. If you look at picture 4 you can see just how much blood there is on the bandages. When this happens to cat-people and they wake up to the throbbing pain, in a cage, thirsty, sickly, needing the litter-box and scared they sometimes try to get away from the pain not realising that it is actually in their own paw. They throw themselves around the cage and in doing so they only make their poor paws bleed all the more. Sometimes they cause what is called haemorrhaging and a lot of blood seeps out through the bandages. If there is no nurse-person there to see this and to tend to the wounds then the cat-person can so easily die. To imagine dying of bleeding after an operation that you didn’t even need is beyond the comprehension of some people, sadly it happens.

So, it is done. It is the work of maybe half an hour or so, if that, to remove the ends of our fingers but the effect is going to last us a lifetime. Human-people would find it hard to adapt to losing the tips of their fingers and so do cat-people. True enough we don’t write with pens or keyboards, or use combs or cutlery but imagine, if you will, having to use sore toe ends, or what has now become the ends of our toes to clean up after ourselves in the litter-box. And imagine trying to stretch and instead of anchoring ourselves to something with claws now we find our paws slide down and get chafed and calloused because we cannot grip. You see, the stretching and scratching instinct is born in us, I think a lot of human-people think that we do it for badness but honestly we don’t, we just have to do it to keep our bodies fit. I’ve heard that not being able to do it means that when we get older we can have awful painful problems with our legs and hips and backs. Imagine also getting up and trying to walk and finding out that you can’t walk as gracefully as you used to because your paws are different now, and imagine jumping, and falling.

Well my human-person model has adapted as well as she has been able, if you look at picture 5 you will see that she is trying to hold the pen and the glass. I have no doubt that over the years left of her life she will find a way to manage as best she can, because after all she will have no choice. And I think that this is what some blinkered human-people think about cat-people that have been declawed, they think that because they adapt and manage to live their lives that they are unaffected by the declawing procedure. They could not be more wrong. They do not realise that cat-people have millions of years of patience and stoicism behind them they are masters at making do and putting up with things, but cat-people feel pain and they feel distress and sometimes they become depressed, and sometimes in their pain and distress they cannot use their litter-boxes and human-people call them dirty and bad, and having put them through the declawing procedure, they still end up not wanting them and throwing them out. It is sad to us cat-people that we are so easily replaceable.

I hope you have found this letter useful and I hope the Canadian-person reads it and realises what is involved, I think if she does she might not be all for declawing after all and she might cancel her appointment to be declawed herself. And if that is the case and she decides that she wouldn’t put herself through the declawing procedure then by rights she should never again put a cat-person through it either. Should she?

The Declawing Conspiracy

2010-07-14T10:32:00.001-07:00

I’ve just watched a particularly nasty piece of propaganda on YouTube, by Dr Glenn Mayer DVM he is currently co-chair of the Public Education Committee and he is the owner of the Abell Animal Hospital in Chicago - which advertises itself on it’s website as your pet’s second best friend! It also advertises on several online veterinary directories, and amongst the services it offers is declawing. In the video this stiff-necked man, in whose hands rests the lives and well-being of cats in Park Ridge, Norridge, Harwood Heights, Niles, Rosemont and Des Plaines Communities of Chicago talks to us, haltingly, about the “complete packages” the clinic offers, pointing out various pieces of equipment in the operating theatre and boasts of the pre-op checks and the constant monitoring of the animals during surgery. He stresses that the clinic does “place a real premium on safety and monitoring” because they realise that “these are your pets and you do care very much about them”. Then Dr Mayer talks us through the merits of his clinic’s laser equipment, donning his safety glasses to demonstrate it’s vaporising capabilities on a wooden tongue-depressor, allowing us to see smoke rising from the cut he makes in the wood and describing it’s uses and flexibility for various surgeries, and telling us that with the laser there is “much less bleeding, and much less pain” in fact he would have us believe that the laser is the best thing since sliced bread! Hmmm…..maybe.

But I think not!

Because after a couple of minutes, and another reminder that with laser surgery there is less bleeding and less pain he brings the subject round to declawing, saying the clinic always uses laser for declawing. He says his feelings on declawing are that it is an individual decision. He says he can’t tell you if every pet needs (NEEDS!) to be declawed and he can’t tell you that every cat doesn’t need to be declawed (his words…pet first and then cat) but the thing is “if the cat is destroying the house” (DESTROYING THE HOUSE??? Oh come on…how big is a cat? Even the biggest cat can’t be more than about 20lbs…how can an animal that size DESTROY a house?) Or “if the cat is hurting people” those are good reasons to get it declawed (IT) because they want the cat to stay in the home and they want the cat to have a happy household. So he goes on to say that when they use a laser to declaw it is “better for them” (the cats) because they don’t have to use a tourniquet and they don’t have to use a scalpel. Yeah but then he had to add that they DO have to clean out “what’s called the char…erm..the burn area” and they do have to put a bandage on to “help with any bleeding that occurs…erm that might occur” and then he tells us the “pets “ have to stay overnight, he can’t even bring himself to mention cats by name! And again he tells us there is LESS bleeding and LESS pain. In the light of evidence we have recently seen of a declawed cat the morning after the operation I’m not surprised the pets have to stay overnight and can only imagine with pity the sort of night that the cats endure!

But wait till you hear what comes next!!! He says, with a smile and a proud gleam in his eye that when they do procedures these days they “GENERALLY use pain medication, which is not something that has always happened during his 33 years of being a veterinarian” but they now realise pets DO HAVE PAIN. Now apart from the thought of the suffering of all those cats over all those years who he has operated on and then in his ignorance given no post op pain relief, what’s this about “generally” using pain medication these days? Does that mean sometimes they do NOT, because according to my PC’s list of synonyms “generally” means usually, normally, in general, in the main, by and large and commonly. This ties in of course with what we already know, some veterinarians charge EXTRA for pain relief! Some veterinarians advise AGAINST any pain relief because if the edge is taken off the cat’s pain then he or she might attempt to move around normally and use the paws in the way they are meant to be used thus causing the wounds to reopen, (oh what a nuisance if those wounds re-open and have to be re-glued, keep those bad cats in pain so they don’t cause extra work!)
On the clinic’s website there is a library of medical information and advice, some of it covers feline behaviour, and give them their due, they make a point of saying that punishing cats is counter-productive, so WHY when they have the perfect opportunity to educate the public about what declawing REALLY is (charring and burning the cat’s toes off!) and not forgetting that on his website it states that this man is currently co-chair of the Public Education Committee is there no mention of how to train cats to use scratching equipment and no discussion about the alternatives to de-knuckling cats! Why is he prepared to stand there listing the merits of laser surgery and in particular laser declaw surgery without including a few sentences describing what declawing is? Why does he gloss over it, saying laser is “better for them” and not all cats NEED declawing? Why, if he really IS your cat’s second best friend, doesn’t he tell your cat’s first best friend, YOU, to sod off because he is not going to declaw your cat? What is the matter with these people, WHY can’t they see what they are doing? Or can they see….but is it that they are blinded by the mighty dollar?

And finally, why has he disabled the comments facility on YouTube if he is so certain he’s doing such a good job? I know for fact that the comment facility was not disabled until one of our troops questioned him on declawing, her comment was never acknowledged and the comment facility was blocked. Now is that what you would expect from a veterinarian from a reputable clinic? Or is it what you would expect from a declawing pimp who wants to cover up what he and his colleagues do to cats for money? Hmmmm?????

Here is the video and HERE is the petition to the AVMA calling for a ban on declawing

Ready mutilated cats, saves new owners from mutilating

2010-05-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

I read HERE with horror just recently that the Environmental, Education, Health and Welfare Committee of Macon County, Illinois, are considering giving pet adopters the option of having a cat declawed (or a dog's dewclaws removed) before taking their new pet home from the County Animal Control and Care Center (now that they have a full time vet’s wages to justify). In fact the board voted 8-0 in favour of this and the only thing they have yet to agree on is the fee, which they have said would cover the cost of “doing two paws”. They seem to think that by doing this they are stopping the adopter from going to another vet for the declawing and that they are saving the cat the trauma of a further anaesthetic and major operation by declawing at the same time as neutering them (they are also assuming the animal is not already neutered)

And they are assuming that the majority of adopters want a declawed cat.

I have mixed feelings about dog dewclaw removal, one the one hand I don’t agree with surgery, for the sake of it and because of tradition, but on the other hand I have witnessed dogs with their dewclaws torn off accidentally so I think that dewclaw removal is very much a decision to be made for the benefit of the individual dog (NOT the owner) although I really don’t think they should be whipped off as part of the adoption process.

Regarding the routine declawing of cats though I think that at a time when more people are realising that it is simply not acceptable this is an outrageous step to take and one that should be protested against vehemently, but will anyone bother to protest? Last time I looked only three people had commented on the press notice, one brilliant comment from a veterinarian in the USA and two regular “ban declawing” campaigners from the UK!

Why, instead of encouraging, in fact offering, the mutilation of the paws of already confused and possibly traumatised cats, can’t the center spend the money on educating would-be owners about the physical and emotional need for cats to keep the claws they were born with? Why can’t they give them a good solid scratching post to take home with them? Why do cats have to lose a third of each of their two front paws to make them acceptable to people who, if they cannot accept a cat the way nature made it, have no right to adopt a cat in the first place?

Anyway, having made my comment on the press notice it stayed in my mind and made me think about my own cats and their precious toes, and it made me imagine a nightmare scenario that thankfully could never happen to them because, although we have many worries now that we have a coalition government lead by a blood crazy hunter, thankfully declawing cats is banned here and will remain so.

My sister and I live together and we have two (neutered) cats who we absolutely adore, we rejoice in their health and wholeness and although we worry about them constantly when they are outdoors we want them to live, and enjoy, their lives as cats should (well as every living creature should, but PM Cameron won’t agree with me there). Although we dread the days when we lose our two precious boys we dread even more the thought of both of us falling off our twigs before they both do leaving one or both of them “orphaned” and reliant on someone taking them in. So we are members of the Cinnamon Trust which means that if they are left behind our boys will be assured of kind and sympathetic care for the rest of their natural lives, given their age now they would probably stay at the sanctuary for the rest of their lives, but the sanctuary is almost a home from home, almost but not quite of course because we would not be there with them and they’ve never known life without us.

But what if we lived in the USA? We couldn’t be members of the Cinnamon Trust in England, so we couldn’t make provision for their futures. So imagine a scenario where my sister and I were suddenly both deceased. Our two bereaved boys who have been cared for as family all their lives may be taken in to an “Animal Control and Care Centre”, they would be confused, they would be frightened, they would be missing us, their familiar home, their toys, their beds, their garden, their regular brands of food, their treats of cooked meats and squirty cream. They would be missing their special games, their individual preferences of grooming, the things we sing to them, they would be missing sitting beside us in our computer chairs while we perch on kitchen chairs to write blogs and protests. They would be missing their scratching posts, their wooden built Catnasium and the trees in our garden. They would be caged, (if they were not euthanized as unrehomeable because of their age) they would be viewed and possibly one or both may be chosen to be adopted.

Bless them, if they weren’t miserable enough by then, did they but know it their troubles were only just starting!!

To imagine one or both of our boys taken from a cage and held by strangers while pre-op pain relief was administered by injection into the paws, taken into surgery and anaesthetised, their paws held up and their precious toes either sliced or burnt off and their bodies being subject to a battering from pain relief equivalent in strength to that given to terminally ill humans makes me feel physically ill.

As does imagining them coming round from the anaesthetic, confused, bandaged, caged and hurting like hell. A cat with bandaged paws thrashes them around anyway, one of ours did when he cut his paw badly and had to have a stitch in it, add to that the pain of ten amputations and it’s easy to believe the truth of the quote from the vet tech about cats throwing themselves, screaming with pain, around the recovery cages.

Who on this Earth thought up the idea of declawing? What monster practiced, unto perfection, removing the last part of a cat’s toes until they could routinely remove a cats claws to make him/her acceptable to the American public and then made public the knowledge how to do it and the availability of it? (And what about the live cats he/she practiced on having experimented on dead cats first, what sort of state were their paws left in?)

And who in Macon County Animal Control and Care Centre gives a toss for those poor rejected creatures that find themselves homeless and at the mercy of plans such as this one!!!!!

Let's have a go at cats

2010-01-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

This is the ultimate; we now have someone who is a personal finance consultant and who gives online loans teaching us all about cats and their claws and what gadgets to buy to punish them (for being cats?). He is very confidant of his knowledge because he starts off by saying
“If you have always wanted to know more about this topic, then get ready because we have all the information you can handle. Getting a pet is just the tip of the iceberg especially if the owner decides to keep it indoors. Before deciding on which animal to get, it is best to read up on the frequent problems that happen so one can be ready to overcome them”.
Get that? We’re talking of getting an animal, we don’t know what species yet, but we’re probably going to keep it indoors (it’s a cat!) and first and foremost we are looking for problems, we’re not learning about our chosen animal, we don’t even have a preference for a specific type of animal but we are looking for problems!
The loan shark goes on to say

“A cat is a cute furry animal that do not usually need to be given a bath like dogs” YES! Well said. “This is as cats are able to clean up themselves very well. But there is more to just giving them food or brushing their fur and these are things the owner must anticipate”. YES again.

But…. There’s always a but “Cats like dogs that have not been trained how to behave indoors can create a lot of problems. The claws of this animal can scratch and ruin the furniture.” Oh no, we’ve cut straight to the chase, we’re on the subject of claws already, and when he says cats have not been trained how to behave indoors, why is that? WHY has the cat not been trained to use the scratching post, it’s very easy and even fun to teach a kitten, all you need is time and patience and the willingness to do it rather than take a surgical short-cut.

“If the creature has not also been toilet trained, the house will smell and the owner will have to clean up after it.” This is stupid, to start with kittens learn from their mother’s to use litter trays, they observe and they copy, it is MOST unusual to get a kitten that isn’t already litter box trained. Likewise it doesn’t take long to train a puppy to do it’s business outside. The problems start when there is no litter tray provided or the tray isn’t kept clean, now that does make the house smell, but that isn’t down to the cat is it? It’s down to the laziness of the owner and in the case of puppies it’s because attention isn’t paid to establishing a routine of toileting outside at regular times and after naps, it isn’t rocket science, there is no need for anyone’s house to smell.

There are ways to solve the clawing problem. One way is declawing it when your pet is still a kitten. Since some people find this to be cruel to the animal, then one would have to buy a scratching post and teach it to scratch on the surface when the animal feels like doing it. Back to cats and back to the claws, yes go on, get them declawed, merely say some people find it cruel, don’t explain WHY they find it cruel, nor what happens during declawing, nor what the cat suffers during and after declawing, nor what can go wrong, loss of paws, limbs and lives. But wow, if one thinks declawing is cruel then one will have to go to all the trouble and expense of buying a scratching post, oh dear me, and not only that one would have to teach the cat to scratch on the surface, what a nuisance, how much easier to have the “creature” declawed and be done with it. Notice the online loan merchant advises declawing while you pet is still a kitten? Before, or rather INSTEAD of, buying a scratching post I don’t want to be boring (though I probably am) but I need to quote the AVMA again "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).” so what right has he to glibly condemn kittens to a lifetime of half-paws, what qualifications has he? He’s a finance consultant, that’s what!
“Since the kitten does not know what the scratching post is for, it is best to teach it by grabbing its paws and doing the motion. This will take some time to learn so one should observe that cat and practice it often” (the grammar is his – observe that cat?)

Wrong! GRAB its paws? What is wrong with taking hold of the kittens paws gently? What is this obsession with grabbing everything? Take your time Money Man, hold the paws gently and yes, good idea make the scratching motions, it may take some time, it may not but it’s a damn site better than cleaving those toe ends off a kitten’s tiny paws!
Another product for training cats is a litter box. This is to solve the waste problem that will happen if the cat has not yet been trained on what to do should it feel the urge. These can be purchased at the local pet store and choosing one should depend on the size of the cat. Wait a minute; surely a litter box isn’t a training product? It’s a necessary purchase if you have a cat, even cats that are allowed outdoors (and of course declawed cats are NOT safe outdoors) should have a litter box for emergency use. If the litter box is merely a training aid to “solve the problem” until the cat has been trained “on what to do should it feel the urge” then what actually IS the cat supposed to do when it feels the urge? This usurer has me baffled by his reasoning because he states a couple of times that “the animal” will be indoors, yet seems to make no provision for the calls of nature other than a litter box if the cat has not been trained. Am I missing something or does he expect the cat not to crap or pee once it has been trained?

Using the litter box will take some time and practice so one should keep a close watch on the cat. Should it start behaving like it is about to do it, one should carry the cat immediately to the litter box. Another way of teaching it is picking up the waste, putting it in the box then putting the cat in the box to get used to the smell. Yawn, How’s your loan business doing then Ken? Bit quiet is it at the moment, huh?
Cats like other animals need time to exercise. To prevent this animal from ruining the house, one should buy toys such as a stuffed animal or a ball for the animal to play with. Hah! Totally biased, the “animal” is going to ruin your house, this is almost like a subliminal message, every now and then he pops it in that the house will be ruined, the house will smell, “one” will have problems, oh what a pessimist this money man is! But isn’t it good news that buying a stuffed animal or a ball will prevent the animal ruining the house…where then is the need for declawing pray?

We now learn about "training aids"

“There are many varieties of cat training products available on the market which can be found in the local pet store or online. The person has to know what is needed in order to make the pet good for the indoors. (His grammar again)
Here are some of the cat training devices that can magically transform a misbehaved pet to an obedient one:” (or an incredibly nervous one seeing that after the first device they are all doing something physically nasty to the cat)
1. "The Potty-Cat"
This quirky and cute-looking system is a magic of sorts as it has everything - a handy manual and the device that can train the cat without him knowing about it! No more foul litter, just a smart-aleck of a cat! Incredible and true!

This looks to be a litter box with a toilet seat built in – ye gads! But no more FOUL LITTER (which by the way is part of choosing to share your life with a cat) I suppose this answers my earlier question.

2. "Pet Agree Training Device"
What does it do? Its ultrasonic system emits sounds that can easily catch the pet's attention. With its built-in verbal orders, the cat is trained in an instant!
This is a hand held device that emits a high frequency sound; you point it at the pet when it offends you and scare the poor bloody thing half to death with the high-pitched noise.

3. "SSSCAT"
Because it combines the power of an aerosol can and a motion detector, the SSSCAT emits sound and the spray that can shoo the cat away from places where it is prohibited.
This damned thing detects when a cat is approaching somewhere “verboten” (don’t mention the war) and blasts it with a spray of “harmless” non-toxic gas to frighten it out of its wits.
4. "Electrostatic Pet Scat Mat"
The name sounds ominous but the "Electronic Pet Scat Mat" is pretty harmless. But that doesn't mean it is ineffective. The electrical pulse and the static electricity can keep the pet cat from messing around the sofas, windows and front yards.
My blood pressure is rising now, this horrible (PRETTY harmless) invention uses electrical impulses similar to static electricity. Have you ever brushed your hand down nylon clothes and got a static electricity shock? Or combed your hair, or got hold of the car door handle on a hot day and got a nasty tingle in your hand? Well bear in mind that you know what has caused it, just imagine a cat or a dog getting this shock….actually I really don’t want to imagine it. You can get these electrocution strips in sizes for sofas, worktops, cars or windowsills (where is the cat going to sit to try and get a glimpse of the great outdoors? Not on the windowsill apparently. This loan shark is getting on my nerves big time now.

5. "Pet Boundary Indoor Pet Barrier System"
It keeps the cat away as it makes its own "unwanted zone" that can be as far as ten feet. The owner just has to place the transmitter to the collar and voila.
It gets worse this has a tag that the unfortunate and seemingly barely tolerated pet has to wear on it’s collar (I hate collars) you then place the base unit in the forbidden area, and if the poor bloody unsuspecting cat tries to enter the no-go area then the damn thing emits a tone at a frequency that will only hurt the animals ears and not the precious human ones! In fact it happily recommend it because it “Helps teach pets not to jump up on forbidden furniture, raid the garbage, chew on houseplants, eat other pets’ food or litter, snuggle up in baby’s bed, or be in a place you don’t want them to be!”
Excuse me, can this not be done in a more kindly manner? We have never resorted to blasting our cats hearing to Kingdom Come to get the message over, KINDNESS Ken, kind-ness, you ought to try it sonny instead of recommending all these instruments of remote punishment. And hey, if the cat eats the other pet’s food or uses his litter is that SUCH a crime? Remembering the fact that you brought the cat into your home by your own free choice. No one forced you.

6. "Scarecrow Water Spraying Animal Repeller"
Introducing the Scarecrow Water Spraying Animal Repeller which goes to water-spraying when it notices an intruder aka the pet cat.
Well this stupid thing is obviously for outdoor use as it blasts the animal with water up to a 35 foot range, it actually says “Try the Scarecrow, a device that blasts animals with a blast of water when they approach.” So this is for when the inmate is allowed parole but must not put a paw in the wrong place outside either.

7. "Tattle Tale Vibration Alarm Pet Trainer"
Pets keep out! That's what this device intends to warn the pet cats. Advanced as it is with the structural vibration technology, the Tattle Tale is so sensitive it detects vibration right away even if there is no apparent movement.
This is recommended for cats, dogs and to keep the kids off the cookie jar, you stick it on the priceless, irreplaceable object and it senses vibration when approached and gives off a dual purpose shriek, one to startle the cat, dog or cookie-snitcher, two to alert the storm troopers, sorry I mean the owner/parent.

8. "Cat Stop! Ultrasonic"
Gardens and front yards will no longer welcome the cats, because of its high-quality motion sensor.
This is another outdoor thing, more high frequency noise, to stop other people cats using the garden, obviously his own cat’s parole licence has been revoked and it’s now back in it’s cell.

Cat training devices abound, the cat lover will never run out of alternatives on how to keep his cat from getting litter-crazy.
Cat LOVER???????????????????????

Would any of you lovely people who follow my blog use these electrical impulses and screeching devices on your cats? I can’t imagine anyone who loves and respects their cat resorting to such intrusive and horrible devices instead of taking the time to kindly train the cat, of course it’s so much easier to zap him with static, might get a laugh or two out of it as well eh Mr Money Lender?

Here’s his credentials folks

About the Author:
Ken Charnely is webmaster at one of Internet popular article directories. For more articles on this topic visit ArticleTeller.com. He is also a personal finance consultant. Catch him at Online Loans - Apply for Loans Online
And here is the nitty gritty, if you need extra cash to pay for declawing your tiny kitten or to purchase one of these instruments of torture…. Just contact Ken and he’ll lend you the money.
Author: Ken Charnely
Blogger Babz and a damn well disgusted Babz at that, what a load of biased, cold, cruel, anti-cat baloney.

Cut price cruelty

2009-12-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a revolting veterinary practice that epitomizes all that is corrupt in the USA veterinary world as regards declawing cats. Regular readers will know how fond I am of quoting that miserable excuse for a declaw policy on the AVMA site, “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 owners The AVMA believes it is the obligation of veterinarians to provide cat owners with complete education with regard to feline onychectomy.” blah..blah..soft soap etc etc and yet this practice, The Eads Animal Hospital in Tennessee not only advertises reduced price feline laser declaw but actually recommends that kittens are declawed between 4 and 6 months at the same time as neutering. it goes like this:

Feline Laser Declaw
The surgical laser is used when performing all feline declaws. It decreases the amount of bleeding and pain that can occur and promotes a quick return to normal activities. The recommended age for declawing is four to six months and can be performed at the same time as a spay or neuter.

Now if I understand the AVMA statement correctly (and let’s face it it’s not hard to get is it?) declawing, or onychectomy, should be considered only AFTER other attempts have been made to prevent the cat using it’s claws destructively….right? How come then this site goes on to say this “Cats spend up to 40% of their time scratching in a destructive manner. Many owners choose to have their cats declawed to protect their furniture or other household items". So now we have a recommendation that kittens can be declawed as young as four months, and we are also provided with a reason to have our kittens mutilated. “Cats spend up to 40% of their time scratching in a destructive manner” On who’s say so? Define destructive! Who knows if the scratching is destructive, and if it is who knows how many of those cats if provided with scratching posts wouldn’t have been as happy to scratch them as anything else, and who know's if those cats have any stimulation or are bored and frustrated enough to scratch the furniture just for something to do, and what’s this “up to 40%”? That could easily mean 1%,10% or 39% couldn’t it? How can a sweeping statement like this be used as pure advertising spiel for a veterinary practice? What about misrepresentation of facts for own gain?

They then go on to say “Declawing is an alternative to relinquishment, outdoor housing or possible euthanasia for many cats.” How so? This is painting a very bleak picture; it’s making it sound as though there are no cats with whole and healthy paws, they have all either been declawed, relinquished, kicked outside or killed. What about a really outside the box idea…..don’t get a cat in the first place! This really worries me though because there is absolutely no mention of keeping a cat the way it comes, complete with claws, there are no practical alternatives given, no mention of claw clipping or the dreaded soft paws even, the only words that are used are relinquishment, outdoor housing and euthanasia. This is almost like brain washing or subliminal suggestion in my opinion.

Of course it suits this and other equally money grabbing practices to imply that the only good cat is a declawed cat, were they to follow the AVMA guidelines and actually offer complete education to would be declawing owners then they would lose out on a profitable “service”. Once they realized the reality of what they were intending for their cat I’m sure many more owners would react with horror and decide against it, rather than book what sounds like a pussycat manicure and find out when it’s too late that it was in fact amputation of Pussycat’s toe ends. And there is nothing more final than amputation. No going back, no surgical glueing on of those offcuts.

“Using a surgical laser for declawing, rather than using scalpel blade dissection, has been proven to greatly reduce the pain, infection and bleeding experienced by cats. Recovery time has also been reduced with the use of the surgical laser. It is reported by some veterinarians to be the only humane method for declawing.” Again, it’s this greatly reduced pain, infection and bleeding, the point that those of us who hate and detest everything about declawing cats keep trying to make is this..there should be NO pain, infection or bleeding, this is a procedure which is wholly owner elective (with a little persuasion from your local vet) it is never an emergency life saving operation, it isn’t necessary for the cat’s well-being so what is this casual acceptance that any pain, no matter how much reduced, is acceptable? It is totally avoidable, unnecessary, unproductive pain – why can’t they see that? And for goodness sake what about this “It is reported by some veterinarians to be the only humane method for declawing.” They know, they actually KNOW that other methods are inhumane, and yet they’re always banging on about cats “back to normal” after a period of recovery so how is laser declawing humane? Does it not remove the toe ends? We know it bloody well DOES, so it is NO LESS inhumane than a chopping axe!

They also mention special litter “A special litter is recommended to use 10 – 14 days after surgery. Yesterday’s News is a litter made from recycled newspaper that decreases dust and reduces the potential for infection.” What’s the betting they also sell it? And note it only reduces the potential for infection (for infection read gangrene!)

Here’s the thing though, here is the emetic, this will make you puke, retch and reach for a bowl!

Here’s the December special promotions folks
Promotions
December Promotions
Featuring Felines

10% Off Feline Front Declaw

25% Off Feline Wellness Blood Work

Free Yesterday’s News w/Declaw

Free Kitty Toy w/Feline Exam

How disgusting is that????????? Buy a declaw at reduced price and get a bag of litter free?

And can you believe they say this
“Our goal is to treat our clients as we would treat our families, and to treat our clients’ pets as though they were our own. Our clients and patients are the heart of our practice and the reason we are here. We strive to enhance not only the lives of pets, but the owners’ lives as well.”

I don’t know how they think they are enhancing the lives of cats by offering cut price deknuckling!!!!!!

Boycott the Eads Animal Hospital, Eads,Tennessee

God save cats from the American Pet Hospital in Las Vegas

2009-11-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

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.

A little more light relief

2009-10-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Here is another batch of funnies, just for a bit of light relief from the usual way we spend our time online, all spellings & grammar are as they appeared on various sites.

The birds and the bees
1) your cat will have a baby. are you sure she havent married???i think you should take she to vet and chek up of her.
Well not many cats bother to get married in this day and age, they usually just shack up together so good for her if she has!

2) By the way he was kinda playin mature with a toy (dont know what it means but look like it not that good)

3) When my male cat was in heat he never sprayed

4)I have a female cat that is spaded .. she meows everynight about 1am ,, why ?
Gord knows but she seems to be a good timekeeper!

When can male cats start making babies?
when can they... you know.. stick it out and are inclined to do it when they see the female
Answers on a postcard as to when they can stick it out.

How to tell the gender of a kitten.
Look at the urinal area of your kitten

Telling it like it is!
Spotting a female is easy; if she doesn't have balls, boom, bobs your uncle, it's a female ;)
Succint!

Strange doings!
My cat has been acting crazy for about 2 weeks now (sorry to bother you with my cats Qs but I need help) she seems fine (eat, drinks and plays) but out of nowhere she will scream BLOODY MURDER it makes me shake and have goosebums all over my body

Q Does your cat smile while they are sleeping? My cat smiles in his sleep ALL the time! It's so cute! What about your cats? :)
A Mine twitches and its lips cringe

Q I think I love my cat, we go out for meals and sleep together, is this normal?
A yes your a cat person and if the cat did not like it you would get a scratch on your nose and it would leave you ... unless you butted its feet then it might come back haha

Strange people!

I was talking to my little cat last night and I said "You're not my cat, and you're not my feline companion"
I said: "You're my little adopted daughter". Don't you think that's nice of me? :-) :-)

I do actually

I want him to sleep on my bed ,be next to me but he has a smell after he does a peepee.he is a male 1 year is birthday is 21/11/07
Don’t forget to send him a card folks!

Was Jesus a Fireman? Come again? (Pardon the pun)

Famous Cat Quotes?

does anyone know who said this?
Vol-au-vent WTF?

Cats’ names
Q Does you cat have a nickname, if so what is it?
A1 I call my kitty, "Bo Bo Head."
A2 NUMMY NUTZ
A3 WINSEY POO-POO
A4 Buddha (because she is fat)
A5 who said u have the rights to know wat our cats names r
A6 I call my cat "Kitty." Original, right? (:Her name's actually Cricket Luna. I sort of... accidentally came up with it.
A7 shitty itty stinker dinker doo boog boog bee boog

I wonder if that one is an outdoor cat? Imagine shouting that name to get him in at night.

Cats and their bowels!
Q How can i make my cat poop prooply in the cat litter tray? The other day he pooped in my lil girls wardrobe
A Show him ... poop yourself on the tray in front of him
Brilliant answer!

Our male has learned to use the toilet, without any training...and flushes it as well.

I understand they have to bury it but she flings it everywhere and sometime there are even turds that get out.
Aghhh!! The turds are coming for you.

Q Why does my cat keep shitting on my bed?!?
A1 he wants something especially if your cat is about 1-3 years old. Usually they want to go outside meet and nice girl have sex. The male cats like to have sex.
That was a very full answer, lots of detail there.

A2 Perhaps your bed smells like a toilet to him, change your sheets and wash them.
Yuck!

A3 a lot of males will do that if he wanting something u will not give him.
Quite true! Oh are we still talking about cats?

Q When replacing a cats litter box, is it true that you must buy a similar color as the old one...?
A1 Your cat honestly could care less about the color of it's crapper and is more concerned that there is one.

A2 Cats don't care. My wife died years ago and my new GF brought her cat and enclosed litter box. My 9 yo cat had no problem adapting to a new box in a new location
Sounds as though the cat isn’t the only one that had no problem adapting to change.

My cat also, crapping on the sofa too because it sharing it's claws.
With whom?

Cat’s piddling
Have never seen a male cat raise their leg and urinate like a dog does. Are you sure the cat did raise its leg? Ve haf vays of finding out if your cat raised his leg!

Male cats do not normally lift their leg to urine. I just did a Google search on:male cats raising leg to urinate I didn't find anything that said that cats will raise their legs to urinate, but then I didn't look real closely at the search results
After all that raising legs and urinating he didn’t look at the search results anyway

And dogs who work for the Royal Mail
Especially if it is a mail dog as their urine is far more pungent.

Cats wearing strange things
I know my cat has ear mits, I realize my other cats can and probably have gotten the mits by now,
A cat wearing ear mits?

My cat is leaving behind dark specs and cant stop scratching/chewing?
And a cat that keeps forgetting his sunglasses!

A medical diagnosis
Bouble eye lids is usually a sign of fever
Bouble eyelids? Again....WTF?

Back to the bowels
Q Why doesn't our cat fart a lot?
we smelled our cat's fart just one time since the 2 months she lived with us. Shouldn't she be farting more ?

A1 Its probly farting lol but you just cant smell it

A2 If I were you I wouldn't be complaining. Cat farts are rotten. It is like humans -some fart a lot and some not quite as often! Keep your fingers crossed kitty keeps the farts to a minimum. She is obviously a lady!!
Cat farts are NASTY!!!
As are most farts, of course. I’ve never met a nice one.

Strange remarks
please rehome the cat, you don’t have the patience, let alone the smarts to understand this innocent little life

I have a cat that i got from a friend!! he is cute but i wound like to know wat he is if there is any way than plzs tell me!!!
Hmmm, a cat?

I have had two cats since they were tinny :)

They have like skin or something inside their nails

When you clean the litter box just put it in a plastic wal- mart bag and tie it shut
I wonder if a Morrisons bag work just as well.

I saved the best till last
Would you get changed in front of your cat?
I would get changed in front of anything, cat, dog, spider. (Probably not a hungry peregrine falcon though, I value my dangly bits too much!)

Back to the serious stuff next time. Thanks for your indulgence.

Why declawing must be banned

2009-10-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

To whom it may concern:
To all of those people who do not think that cat declawing should be banned by legislation, arguing that the decision should be made after consultation between veterinarian and cat owner I would like to offer the following evidence in prove that cat owners and veterinarians are abusing your trust in them because they are not always acting in the animal’s best interest.

Firstly I’d like to quote the AVMA policy on declawing cats:
Declawing of domestic cats should be considered only after attempts have been made to prevent the cat from using its claws destructively or when it’s clawing presents a zoonotic risk for its owner(s).

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), established in 1863, is a not-for-profit association representing more than 78,000 veterinarians working in private and corporate practice, government, industry, academia, and uniformed services. Structured to work for its members, the AVMA acts as a collective voice for its membership and for the profession.

(The veterinarian’s oath
Being admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine, I solemnly swear to use my scientific knowledge and skills for the benefit of society through the protection of animal health, the relief of animal suffering, the conservation of animal resources, the promotion of public health, and the advancement of medical knowledge. I will practice my profession conscientiously, with dignity, and in keeping with the principles of veterinary medical ethics. I accept as a lifelong obligation the continual improvement of my professional knowledge and competence.)

The Humane Societies recently updated statement
People choose to declaw their cats for a number of reasons: some are frustrated with shredded drapes or furniture, some are worried about being scratched, and others simply feel that a declawed cat is easier to live with.
In many cases, cats are declawed pre-emptively, as a part of a spay/neuter package offered by veterinarians, even before claw-related problems occur………
While there have been changes in the way that cats are declawed, it's still true that for the majority of cats, these surgical procedures are unnecessary. Educated owners can easily train their cats to use their claws in a manner that allows animal and owner to happily coexist. Declawing and tendonectomies should be reserved only for those rare cases in which a cat has a medical problem that would warrant such surgery, such as the need to remove cancerous nail bed tumors. Declawing a cat does not guarantee that the animal will not be relinquished to a shelter or euthanized. Declawed cats may develop other problem behaviors, such as biting or litter box avoidance, and end up being surrendered to a shelter anyway.

Having read that I’d like to invite you to read the following excerpts from a website for which I can gladly supply the link. The quotes are not taken out of context they are exactly as they were written, spellings included, though coarse language is disguised. The person who asked the question lives in New York. I have made the really shocking comments bold print.

This is the initial post and one further post from the asker

1. We're moving to a new place and we decided to get B a kitty. Our Kitty is at the vet right now getting neutered, declawed, all his shots, flea dip.. lets just say he's getting fully serviced. lol Anyways, I have to go pick him up tomorrow morning and I was wondering if his paws were going to be really sore? I have his litter box and food and water dish in the laundry room and he has to jump a baby gate to get in there and I'm worried it will hurt him to jump it. He is my first cat, I always had dogs before so any information about cats and declawing would be helpful. Oh and I already know that it is mean to declaw a cat, I don't care, I don't want him to scratch my kid. He is going to be a indoor cat and doesn't really need them, so the vet says.

2. Have you ever had a cat that got declawed? I know he's going to be sore. But I was wondering how sore and how long it lasts?

They don't actually cut anything off. They slice the tip and remove the claw, I guess.

This is the first reply, again I have made the shocking content bold print
They are NOT allowed to jump at all! and they are supposed to have special litter for a week or two. They have it at the vet. They usually wont give pain meds because if the pain med takes away the pain then the cat will jump and not know better and bust the tips open and they will get infected- I have experienced this firsthand with a cat before. It is best not to give them the pain med even if the vet does offer it.

the vet should give you litter made from newspaper. when cats are first declawed they cant use the regular cuz their paws can get infected. The cat I had went crazy for the first couple days after because of the pain. You also have to make sure that he doesnt lick his paws. Good Luck. Hope all goes well.

Thank you. I already purchased the special litter. I'll keep that in mind about the pain meds because when I called to check on him earlier the vet mentioned something about it. They didn't mention the no jumping thing, I'm happy I asked now. Lol

So what is being discussed here is witholding pain relief from a cat who has had ten separate amputations of his toe ends, make no mistake about this, the claw is an extension of the bone, to remove the claw the bone has to be amputated at the first knuckle. Can you imagine having your finger ends amputated and being given no pain relief, just in case you forgot about your wounds and used your stumps normally? I think not. And yet cats and kittens that are declawed have to use their paws almost immediately on coming round from a general anaesthetic. They have to stand on their paws, putting pressure on the wounds and they have to use those paws to dig in whatever litter they are provided with because cats are instinctively clean and will always seek out a clean litter box, if however following declawing the cat experiences severe pain while using the litter box then after that the cat will always associate using the litter box with pain. This is what causes the litter box avoidance and the use of floors, carpets and soft furnishing for toiletting.

lol yeah realy - all my cats have always had their front paws declawed- otherwise I would not have any furniture left! They dont go outside EVER so they dont NEED them anyway. (again!)
Of course they need them, they need them for walking, grooming, playing, climbing, catching and raking litter, as well as a very important means of self defence. It is no use arguing that indoor cats don’t need to defend themselves, what about if the home was broken into and a window broken or door kicked in and the cat bolted out and was lost, how would he not only defend himself from other cats but also from predators, and how would he catch food to eat? What about if the cat didn’t bolt and the intruder was someone who would ill treat the cat, no claws means that the cat can’t lash out and run. And what about floods, fires and other disasters when cats sometimes get lost or abandoned during evacuation of homes.?

The way I look at it: 1) I don't want him scratching my son. 2)I also don't want him scratching my new living room set. Lol
I agree it is a little mean, but it would be meaner if I killed the cat for attacking my son and scratching him all up. Not saying the cat would do that, but if he did....

This cat is new to the home and is being declawed at the same time as neutered just in case he scratches this person’s son. Why on earth should he attack the child and “scratch him all up”? She’s not even saying the cat would…….
Just to remind you of the AVMA policy:

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).

The vet told me they slit the top and remove the nail. Totally inaccurate and if this is true that vet’s licence to practice needs reviewing.

Declawing traditionally involves the amputation of the last bone of each toe and, if performed on a human being, it would be comparable to cutting off each finger at the last knuckle.
Declawing can leave cats with a painful healing process, long-term health issues, and numerous behavior problems. This is especially unfortunate because declawing is an owner-elected procedure and unnecessary for the vast majority of cats.

Well, either way, the nails had to go. It's a safety thing, my Son is only 17 months. Lol
Still laughing out loud (Lol) and presenting no evidence that there is any actual sign of the child being at risk.

most cats wont keep the nail things on - they can chew them off and just trimming the nails doesnt stop them form scratching furniture- sprays dont work either nor does providing a scratching post. It is a necessary evil.
You will note that this respondant mentions only scratching of furniture as a reason to declaw a cat and condsiders it a necessary evil.

My Son runs around and the Kitty chases him, he loves it, at least he'll love it untill the kitty grabs ahold of his foot. lol I love the kitty, hate the claws.
That cat makes my kid smile a thousand times a day. That's reason enough for me to want to have it.
Without wishing to sound biased, doesn’t this seem to you that the cat is pretty much the child’s plaything and only welcome because it makes the child smile? And that he plays with the cat in a way that to an animal that stalks by instinct invites “grabbing ahold”, this is obviously no fault of the child’s he is too young to realise this but the mother should be supervising the playing and should ensure that the child and kitten don’t get over excited as either one could hurt the other

i have all leather furniture lol there was no way i wasnt going to get my cats declawed. my moms a vet so she did it for free for me lol and both my cats are 4 paw declaws.

it took about a week before my kitties were back to their normal self.

My cat lost his nut and his knuckle today

so we are just supposed to let them ruin all our furniture

No, because you can't teach a cat not to scratch. I have a good looking son and nice things and I would like to keep it that way. I love the kitten, enough to bring him into our home and make him part of our family, but in order for that to happen his claws had to go.

(Reminder: Declawing of domestic cats should be considered only after attempts have been made to prevent the cat from using its claws destructively)

Notice two things, that declawing cats, though a massive trauma for the cat, is being discussed with flippancy and that the biggest reason, stated over and over again, for declawing is to protect the furniture. And may I point out that quite obviously no other attempts have been made to prevent the cat from clawing the furniture, and in fact there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that the cat has clawed the furniture or is even inclined to.

In between these posts there are also posts that are arguing against declawing

To continue
So lets say you have a cat, no kids. you love the cat to death and whenever you're gone at work... it DESTROYS your house,.... scratches every up, tears everything to shreads. you would just deal with it and not declaw your cat? or would you keep buying new furniture? or would you give the cat away?
In our home we’ve had 9 much loved cats over 35 years, they have all been unique with their own personalities and habits, some have been mischievous, some laid back to the point of being horizontal, some jumpy, some naughty but never, ever have any of them scratched everything up, torn everything to shreds or destroyed our house! Nor have any relations’ or friends’ cats to my knowledge. Yes sometimes they do scratch the furniture but to the point of tearing it to shreds or destroying the house? No way.

Q Just curious. What will you do if the cat starts biting? Declawed cats are known to bite more often since they no longer have claws for self-defense.
A I'm willing to work with both my child and my cat on that. I heard spraying them with a squirt bottle works well. It's harmless but they hate it I guess. lol *EDT* I'm going to spray the cat, not my kid. Hehe
And I'll squirt him with water and he'll learn not to bite.

Bitch all day, I already got it done and will do it to any other cat we decide to get later on.
(Reminder: Declawing of domestic cats should be considered only after attempts have been made to prevent the cat from using its claws destructively)

This is aimed at the people who have spoken against declawing, by now the replies are becoming abusive.
None of my 5 cats that I have had have ever bit anyone unless playing. How do you stop your cat from scratching your furniture-? let me guess? you dont- you have old ****** furniture and dont care- probably has cat **** all over it too.
Unfortunately it seems that furniture is the biggest worry.

More from above poster
When I worked at the Humane Society cat bites were very common among the declawed cats in the cat room. These are cats that saw the same 3 faces every day for the many months I was there, trusted us but still bit us.

There are alternatives to declawing one is tendonectomy... which is the snipping of the tendon that allows the cat to extend their claws. the cat keeps their knuckle and claws.”
I've never heard of that, but I assure you, I'm all for it! I hope something like that becomes the norm instead of chopping off a knuckle.
Making the claws useless carries it’s own problems. Because the cat can no longer keep the claws trimmed, the claws will naturally grow in a circular manner into the foot pads causing pain and infection unless the owner is able to trim the nails on a regular basis. (The tendonectomy patient will require life-long management in the form of regular nail clipping).

In order for me to allow a cat into my home I want to make sure it isn't going to put my child in danger or ruin my nice things that I proudly pay for with my own money. I want my child to experience having a pet, we always had pets growing up, it was great. My kid will be able to know what it's like too, and we'll all be happy because no one will be getting scratched and my furniture will stay nice and the cat will get to live in a warm and loving household.

Furniture again and the remote posibility of the child being “in danger” and how is the child going to experience, truly, having a pet and learning about caring for pets if he's going to be brought up thinking that cats should be made clawless. Is that equiping him for the big bad world? No.

All vets around here still declaw. and I think it is soo damn ridiculous to say we dont care about our pets if we declaw them- they dont need claws inside the house!!! (is this truly a misconception or is it an excuse? Can people really believe that cats don't need claws?)

This poster lives in OHIO, all the vets declaw (In many cases, cats are declawed pre-emptively, as a part of a spay/neuter package offered by veterinarians, even before claw-related problems occur………) HSUS statement see page 1,
(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))
AVMA policy see page 1
So can it be that all cats in Ohio use their claws destructively and have resisted all attempts to prevent this happening or is it that all vets in Ohio offer neuter/declaw packages, probably in competition with each other in a sort of price war, and actually encourage the declawing of young cats that have had no opportunity to demonstrate how they will use their claws? I know which I think is the real answer. And I think money is at the root of it.

All 5 of my cats did fine with declawing and were not in serious pain- the one that we gave pain meds to just ended up injuring herself and ripping them open by jumping because she no longer felt any pain and then they got infected-

I know about those, (Soft Paws) they come off. Our next cat will be declawed also.
So a kitten not even conceived let alone born weaned or adopted is already doomed to have it’s claws removed.

This sort of dialogue is sadly all to common, every day you can read posts from people chatting about declawing cats to save their furniture, how can this be allowed to happen?

Until declawing is banned right across the USA this type of ill informed, unfeeling, uncaring attitude will prevail. But the fact is that 38 countries in the world have banned declawing as inhumane so if millions of people in those countries manage to own cats with claws what makes the USA so different? Availability, supply and demand that is what. Take away the easy (on the owner) option and you sort the wheat from the chaff, the people who want a plaything or moving ornament from the genuine cat lovers who want a healthy happy whole cat to share their home and family.

Ideally yes no one but the owner after consultation with a vet should have any say over what is allowed to be done to an animal, but the people in positions of power, owners AND vets are abusing those positions and opting for painful disabling (and money making) procedures for convenience above the well-being of the cat.

This why declawing should be banned by legislation and this is the petition calling for that ban.

Hurting babies

2009-10-03T10:01:00.001-07:00

Here’s another proudly declawing practice, in Wisconsin this time run by a husband and wife who we’ll call the Woodentops and another butcher a.k.a Bonehead, on their website they make wonderful proclaimations, which I'm going to highlight in red, and discuss so here we go - “The decision to remove the claws is a personal decision.”
For whom? Not the cat! And really it shouldn’t be a personal decision, because wrong decisions are being made on a daily basis to deprive cats and kittens of a necessary part of their anatomy, this is why declawing needs to be banned by law, personal decision that is used unwisely should be taken away. And how much is personal decision and how much is auto-suggestion by vets/techs programmed to sell declawing as an add on to other surgical services? We've heard this week from someone who phoned to make an appointment for neutering only to be asked if they wanted to add declawing while they were at it. This is obviously a routine part of appointment making, and someone who isn't clued up about declawing, who in fact thinks it's a pussycat manicure, and who has to accept or refuse on the spot may well say "Oh yes please, I hadn't thought of that, thank you so much!"

It may be needed to protect your home or even family members from a scratching cat.
Protect your home? Protect your family members? Were they made to adopt a fearsome creature with huge, sharp, dagger-like pointy bits when what they really desired was something round and smooth? (a.k.a a goldfish). Is there any need for such drama? Particularly when you read on a bit and discover what age they recommend declawing…..

But first there’s this “In a particularly destructive cat, it can be life saving as many cats are turned over to a shelter because of that behavior.”
Completely disregarding the fact that many more cats are turned over to a shelter, and killed, having been declawed and having developed peeing, pooping and biting habits far worse than the scratching ever was. If ever the home and family members needed protecting maybe it’s AFTER declawing rather than before! But there again cats are disposable, take one cat, ruin it, don’t like the result, get rid of it and get another one. Also there is a more than equal chance that far from being life saving it can be life changing or even life ending

The following are possible complications of this surgery:

• Adverse reaction to anaesthetic

• Gangrene, which can lead to limb amputation

• Haemorrhaging

• Permanent nerve damage

• Persistent pain

• Reluctance to walk

• Scar tissue formation

• Sequestrum (bone chips), requiring additional surgery

• Skin disorders

After surgery, the nails may grow back inside the paw, causing pain but remaining invisible to observers. Declawing results in a gradual weakening of leg, shoulder, and back muscles, and because of impaired balance caused by the procedure, declawed cats have to relearn to walk, much as a person would after losing his or her toes.
PETA

Now here’s the killer…remember that home and family that needed protecting??
Removing a cat’s claws can be done as early as 12 weeks if the kitten weighs at least 2 pounds. Or, you can trim back the nails carefully until your kitten is spayed or neutered as a temporary measure you understand? Or forever if you opt not to have the claws removed. Opt not to? NOT TO should be the norm not something you opt for. And here's a wild idea...why not leave the damn claws alone?

The picture at the top of this page is of a 12 week old kitten, look at those tiny paws and imagine this kitten hardly yet used to having left it’s mother being subject to general anaesthetic and multiple amputations, strong pain relief (hopefully), tight bandaging and post op confinement. Kittens are never still, they just want to play all day. This poor little 12 week old kitten is going to have its toes amputated, so no learning, play fighting, stalking practice or fun and games for him for a long while.

Moreover what about this statement from the AVMA “Animals must be provided water, food, proper handling, health care, and an environment appropriate to their care and use, with thoughtful consideration for their species-typical biology and behavior. (Bold type added by me)

Where pray is the "thoughtful consideration for their species typical behaviour?" Cats need to scratch. Cats claw to have fun and exercise, to maintain the condition of their nails, and to mark their territory—visually and with scent. They stretch by digging their claws in and pulling against their own claw-hold. Cats’ natural instinct to scratch serves both their physical and psychological needs (Peta again) Ergo deny them scratching = deny them thoughtful consideration, yes? Yes!

And what about their famous “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).”

Realistically how much attempt can have been made to prevent a 12 week old kitten using it’s claws destructively? A 12 week or 2lb kitten hasn’t got the strength in it’s paws and leg muscles to do destroy anything! (Yes they can and do make a mess of your feet and ankles with their tiny needles but hey they’re kittens, that is what those amongst us who comprehend that kittens are baby cats and that cats have claws realise and expect.) How could you decide to make an appointment, starve the kitten, put him in a carrier and deliver him to the surgery knowing that he is going to come out of there the next day hobbling on part-feet, on strong pain relief (hopefully) and lying around sore and confused? I know I couldn’t ever subject a cat to any unnecessary surgery, bad enough the surgery they have because of need and because of neutering, but elective cosmetic surgery for the owner’s convenience? Evil!

Zoonotic risk, which must account for a miniscule percent of cats declawed, is still totally unnecessary. It’s been said many times, and it’s true, that people with immunosuppressed conditions in countries where declawing is rightly banned as inhumane manage nicely by following hygienic and safe procedures, or they just don’t have, or hang around, cats. It’s this assumption that everyone has a right to own and adapt a cat that annoys me. Cats are not suitable pets for everyone, they’re not suitable pets for house-proud people who value couches and drapes so much that they’re willing, eager even, to pay to have the cat’s toes amputated. And in some cases cats are not suitable pets for people with certain illnesses, surely the best thing to do is accept that rather than take a perfect cat and make a Frankenstein’s monster out of it’s paws?

So back to the words of wisdom from the Woodentops and their sidekick Bonehead: Generally, it is easier on a cat if done when young as there is less weight on the paws during the recovery period. What is even easier is to take that 12 week old kitten and provide him with scratching equipment, a tall scratching post and a flat scratching pad and show him what to do, interaction with a kitten is nothing but pleasure and is part of the joy of cat owning, or cat parenting if you’d rather, helping your kitten to learn by play is such a lovely experience, I can’t bear to think that anyone would prefer to surgically mutilate a baby animal than spend time shaping the kitten for the years ahead together.

Declawing still can be done even in cats that are older, although they will rebound more slowly.

Here’s one definition of rebound: a reaction to a crisis or setback or frustration
And here’s another A return to health or well-being; a recovery
The first one sums it up for me, crisis? YES Setback? Oh yes! Frustration? A 12 week old kitten deprived of it’s claws, bandaged, confined, medicated? What do you think! Frustration with a capital F!
And of course an older cat will take longer to heal, if at all, mentally and physically. Methinks the word “ rebound” has been chosen in a very sly and crafty manner, “recover” or “convalesce” or “recuperate” all sound very medical. Think of the word rebound and I bet you have a mental image of something bouncing back…hence the implication that they bounce back to full health and vitality (albeit slower they say). The second definition of rebound can’t possibly apply in this case, a declawed cat is NEVER going to return to health or well-being or recover, how can he when at least ten important parts of him are missing?

If you choose to have your cat declawed, it is important that he or she remain indoors. While declawing will not change your cat’s personality, he or she will not have a natural defense

So, as we used to say… “What’s this then, Scotch mist? ”Furthermore, cats without claws have lost their first line of defense, and because of this, they live in a constant state of stress. Less able to protect themselves, they cannot fight off other animals, or escape quickly from a dangerous situation. They may also become biters because they no longer can use their claws as a warning. Groomers, veterinarians, and people who care for declawed cats in shelters find many of them to be nervous, irritable, and difficult to handle.Finally, declawed cats often stop using their litter boxes. Some apparently associate the pain they feel in their paws when trying to cover their waste with the litter box itself. They seek a less painful place for elimination, such as the carpet or bathtub. Even though there are effective ways to modify a cat's litter box behavior, it is a particularly difficult challenge because a declawed cat's aversion results from pain. SOURCE

This is only one of a zillion sites listing the personality changes that can, and do, happen to declawed cats, I mean if these people haven’t researched into this very real and documented complication of declawing how can they possibly judge themselves capable of not only declawing cats but of their aftercare? And the only thing they can possibly think of to warn their clients of is that cats will have a natural defence (and they can’t even spell the word properly)

Here are their self congratulatory credentials Our pets warm our hearts, comfort us in illness and are always good listeners. They are our friends, companions, and family.

My pets are like that, I think a lot of us would be worse of mentally and physically without the loving accepting presence of a purring cat, so having warmed our hearts, listened to us, befriended us, kept us company and been like kin to us, should our reward to these friends be OFF WITH THOSE TOES?

Knowing how important these animals are in your life, it is an honor to care for these important members of your family.

You would never have the honour of getting within a hundred yards of my important members I can tell you! Their importance is soon forgotten when $$$$$’s are in the offing for chopping off those toes.

We treat your pets like family and are committed to celebrating and protecting the human-animal bond.
So, the Woodentops offspring are declawed? Maybe all the family is declawed? Oh no, that’s right only the cats have been declawed, the lesser important “family”, the human animal bond? WHAT human animal bond?

Compassion

We will care for your pet as if he or she was our own. We will treat all pets with dignity and respect.
I can’t even be bothered to comment on this, they don’t know the meaning of compassion, of dignity or of respect, no one who respects animal life could or would take money to remove healthy, vital parts of a cat. Respect Mammon maybe! (Oh, I did comment after all!)
Integrity

We will act with truthfulness, honesty, responsibility and accountability.
Well we’ve already seen the lack of truth and honesty where they stated “While declawing will not change your cat’s personality…..”
We’ve seen a lack of responsibility in their offer to declaw kittens as young as 12 weeks before those kittens have control over their claws and before they have had any training or displayed any destructive tendencies.

Accountability? I think they are thinking of the accounts they send out that are due for payment, lots of lovely dosh

Finally they claim this
Always putting our best paw forward for you and your pets.

They are lucky to have a best paw, the kittens and cats that they have declawed have ruined paws!

A unique experience? Declaw meatheads warning.

2009-09-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Recently I’ve been Googling, browsing and searching out vet clinic that advertise declawing, and there are plenty. But one particularly nasty one I’ve come across is in Arizona. I’m not naming it for fear someone takes their cat there but suffice to say it’s website is sickening (contact me for the link) the head honchos seem to be two women with loads of credentials but not much compassion if this is anything to go by and they are ably(? ) assisted by three CVT’s……. This is their opinion:

The Feline Laser Declaw procedure is much more humane than the traditional declaw surgery.
Oh yeah? Really? Sez who? Oh the two muttonheads who’s clinic it is.

Here’s their headline on their declawing page
The Benefits Of The CO2 Laser Feline Declaw
Which then goes on to offer
SAVE $100.00 during September 2009 and FREE Pre-surgical Examinations Call us today on xxxxxx (haha, I'm not daft enough to include the contact number, no way Hosé)

And here’s another gem:We are pleased to be among the first veterinary practices to offer laser surgery for your precious pet. (they wouldn’t get within a hundred yards of my precious pet I can tell you)

They start off by saying that cat scratching is normal behaviour
“Cat's scratching is a normal behavior that not only helps shed dead nails; it also provides feline communication by depositing scent from glands between their toes on to the scratched object.” Yup, I agree with that, they’ll get no argument from me. Except I’d have called them claws which is what they are, not nails (maybe they think we laymen wouldn’t understand such a difficult word as claw) or am I being pedantic?
Ah, but then they have spoil it by adding
“While natural to the cat, we at xxxxxxx understand when behavior modification (ex: scratching posts, nail trimming, catnip, etc.) has not been effective in deterring your feline friend from using its claws inappropriately and offer Laser Declawing.”

Your feline friend? Don’t make me larf. If it’s natural behaviour then that should be the end of it, never mind jumping in there and offering laser declawing… “Oh please let us help you by crippling your cat. We’ll even knock $100.00 off the price”

Look at this next bit with incredulity, it's priceless -
“Onychectomy (or more commonly called "declawing") is the term given to the surgery involving the permanent removal of the distal portion of the claw. Declawing is completed under general anesthesia. After the distal extremity of each front nail is removed, the paws are usually bandaged”.The distal portion of the claw?? The distal extremity of each FRONT NAIL??? What the hell are they on about? Extremeties of each bloody front TOE is more like, (who has written this anyway? The cleaner? Was she inebriated at the time?)

“Bandaging is not necessary when using the Laser!A brief post surgical stay in the veterinary hospital is often necessary in order to avoid complications. (bleeding out maybe?) The front paws may remain sore for several weeks. In order to promote normal healing, special non-irritating kitty litter should be used for 2-3 weeks.”

Well I’m confused here, at the top they’re singing about the miracles of this CO2 instrument of torture, then they say paws are usually bandaged and then they seem to remember that oh no, they needn’t use a bandage after all. The charred stumps are sealed aren’t they? And look, the front paws are going to remain sore for several weeks! Don’t forget this is "your precious pet” who’s paws are going to be sore by voluntary cosmetic surgery. In order to promote normal healing? What is abnormal healing? I reckon it’s healing around bits of bone etc that leaves the poor cat with mishapen painful paws for the rest of it’s life. The non irritating kitty litter that should be used for 2-3 weeks implies to me that those little stumps are open to infection for that length of time too, so much for laser surgery.

Time for another ad: Laser Declawing offers the safest and most humane method for declawing your feline friend

Using the CO2 laser instead of a scalpel provides surgery with a significant decrease in post-operative pain and swelling. Significant DECREASE of pain and swelling, they're both still there then? The laser cauterizes blood vessels as it cuts and sears the nerve endings, so these are the nerve endings in the extremities of the front nail which , if you remember, is what the inebriate cleaner wrote earlier, this allows our doctors to perform surgery without the use of a tourniquet and no postoperative bandaging is required. Back to the bandages, God they’re obsessed with *bloody bandages (*Freudian slip) Combining laser technology with local nerve blocks (localized pain medication), pre and post-operative pain medication your precious feline is back to normal activities much sooner than traditional surgery with a scalpel would allow. (What? Like, never, do you mean?) Call our office for more details. Like hell I will!
Now, this next bit is quite exceptional, so proud are they of themselves that they invite an audience

Because of our standards we are proud to offer you peace of mind when your pet has surgery by allowing you the following options:

You may stay with your pet when he/she is premedicated and wait while the sedation takes effect

You may watch the laser surgery procedure

You may sit with your loved one after the procedure during recovery

If you would like to have this unique experience with your pet, please tell our Doctors during your presurgical visit. Call today to schedule an appointment.

They are certainly offering a unique experience, at least ten chances to watch this butchery and maybe it’s a good thing because sitting with your "precious pet" and sharing it’s unique (for unique read inhumane, unnecessary, cruel, mutilating, crippling, etc, etc ) experience during declawing and post op pain and confusion could be the very thing that sickens the moron who has subjected his/her cat to declawing. But even so it’s too late for their precious pet isn’t it?
On their authorisation for anaesthesia/surgery form they make a huge point of asking for 50% deposit up front. Do you think this is possibly because when the owners see what is being done to their “precious friends” during the “unique experience” they are sharing they’ll pick the cat up and run a mile! Maybe.

Anyway, if not, when the precious pet has had the “extremities of each front nail” hacked off and the owner has shared the unique experience, they can take their dear friend home the next day and their children can safely do, without fear of reprisal, what the brat in the picture at the top is doing. Manhandle the cat!

My case, as they say, is rested.

I wish a plague of pustulating poxes on declawers.

Old and dangerous declaw propaganda

2009-08-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

On this site which has been up since 1999, the owner speaks about her departed cats thus: “They were spayed and neutered, and declawed. They were indoor only cats, and quite content” Further down the home page there is a link to another page written by the site owner and she calls it her politically incorrect opinion. And How! It is so ridiculously biased that although it’s obviously been abandoned the fact that it’s still lurking there, like a World War II hand grenade in the back of the potting shed waiting to impart it’s contents to the innocent, it makes me shudder. Here are her words of wisdom.
I Believe Cats should be declawed - Front Claws That is
There is no earthly reason that a cat must have its front claws. They will fight - if it's ever necessary - with the claws on their hind feet and teeth. If you do the right thing, and keep your cat indoors, it will be unlikely to ever need those claws.
What is this obsession with fighting? Why don’t people like this realise that claws aren’t just a fistful of weapons but are essential tools for plugging in and anchoring themselves for a good stretch of the muscles in the legs, chest and back, for grooming and scratching that maddening itch, for hooking toys and practicing and honing, as cats do for life, their grabbing of prey skills, for balance when doing that most basic and necessary thing, walking from A to B, and for jumping and anchoring with. The sight of a declawed cat slipping off the furniture having jumped and found no grip amuses some people but to me it is simply sad. Another reason to destroy the myth that indoor cats don’t need their claws is of course the real risk of the home being broken into, door or window smashed or left open and cat either fleeing in terror or being abused by the intruder. Either scenario is horrible, a declawed frightened cat outdoors is so very vulnerable, and an indoor cat cornered by some drug or drink crazed trespasser with no claws to lash out with is likely to lose it’s life after God knows what first. So that opening sentence “There is no earthly reason that a cat must have its front claws” not only ignores the needs of the cat but the ultimate safety of the cat in admittedly rare but quite possible future situations.

While most enlightened people today would agree that spaying and neutering are required for their pets, and would also agree that it's safer and healthier for a cat to live indoors than to roam around outside, we haven't got people evolved enough yet to give up the notion that a cat must have its claws in order to be happy.

This starts off OK, (though we “enlightened people” know that spaying and neutering are in fact the same thing, neutering being an umbrella term for spaying and castration) she says that spaying and neutering are required for pets (required sounds a bit big brother like) and that these enlightened people also agree that it’s safer and healthier for a cat to live indoors than to roam around outside.
Well the jury is out on that one and it largely depends which side of the pond you live on. For example in England most people, my family included, think that cats have the right to roam and to live a full life indoors and out. Sometimes it is necessary to confine a cat to the home for one of many reasons but then it is the duty of the owner (for want of a better word) to provide similar stimulation to that which the cat would find outdoors. It’s easy to knock up a cat run, cats aren’t house-proud but they do appreciate fresh air, sunshine and green grass. Don’t we all. In the USA it’s more normal to keep cats indoors all of their lives. I suppose what they never have they never miss and I know that there are natural predators in the USA that wipe out cats, so, as I said the jury is out, I know which way I’d vote but that’s not the subject here, it’s her assumption that she knows best that is so annoying.

And then the killer phrase: “we haven't got people evolved enough yet to give up the notion that a cat must have its claws in order to be happy.”

This honestly makes my eyes bulge and for once words fail me. Evolved? Give up the notion that a cat must have its claws in order to be happy? Here is one definition of evolved “In biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though the changes produced in any one generation are small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the organisms. ...” so by my understanding the writer seems to think that accepting the amputation of cats toe ends has to be bred into the human race, it’s a bit like one of Hitler’s plans for a master race then? Plainly she is evolved, in fact she speaks in the plural so she must have some evolved friends too, the rest of us are still swinging in trees in the jungle holding our fully clawed but happy cats in our teeth.

This throwback to the anti-spaying, anti-neutering, 'let the cat run free and wild, don't keep it locked indoors' mentality needs to be discarded. Then we will see more happy cat owners, more happy cats, and more cat owners.

This bit is just plain silly, what has this to do with her argument for declawing? Ranting on about “spaying and neutering” is a favourite smoke screen of the “chop them off brigade”, they try to muddy the water by lumping the very necessary neutering of cats with the very unnecessary declawing of cats. I don’t quite get the happy cat owners and happy cats remark I must admit, but she's quite obsessed with the word happy isn't she?

Cats don't need their claws for any other reason. I think the prissy world of the politically correct goes too far, in completely banning and rejecting declawing.

Speechless again! Look at this lot, “cats don’t need their claws for any other reason” Whaaat? What about all those reasons I noted above? And not only do cats need their claws but they WANT their claws, just like I want my finger ends. Imagine someone deciding to chop your or my fingers off, there’d be no end of an investigation, and compensation claims would be flying hither and thither but cats are picked up, stuffed in a basket, whipped off to the vet, anaesthetised and toes removed, then they come home happy. Huh!!! I bloody think not. And the world of the politically correct is prissy is it? Well maybe it is and maybe it’s not but declawing isn’t politically incorrect it is MORALLY incorrect. Completely banning and rejecting declawing is exactly what is needed all the world over but blinkered, self deluding, opinionated bigots like this person will fight to the last to defend her right to cripple her cats, and to tell the world her cats are quite content (and happy).

Next thing, they'll be against spaying and neutering, since that involves mutilation of the animals, and they should have a right to reproduce....

Back to the old, old story, so yawningly predictable so worthless a remark.

But wait…..though her tale is told and she is satisfied that she has enlightened us there is more in the form of comments she received, but before them she posts this: Many people have emailed me, to state their concerns about declawing. **If you're thinking of sending hate mail - and I've received some on this subject - forget it. It goes to 'trash' where it belongs. Polite email is always welcome**but please, do read through the following pages first, because most of the anti-declawing arguments have already been posted!
So the comments made are not going to come as any surprise to you readers, needless to say they are all loaded in favour of declawing, here are some of the comments and her replies too:

1. Our current kitty has his claws, and regularly goes to the groomer for nail trimming, as well as clipping - the fur between his toes and on the pads of his feet grows thick and long, and makes him quite uncomfortable. If he had come to us at a young age, and had to go to the vet's for neutering, then we would definitely have him declawed at that time. Because he has already been neutered, is a most well-behaved cat -he uses his scratching posts faithfully, and because he is not a young cat we would not consider having him declawed now. We see no reason to have him undergo an operation only for that.

Right, so where is the logic here? When they got the cat he was obviously a bit older and had already been neutered, had it been different and he had gone to her as a kitten then he would have lost his claws for life at a very early age and yet this person has written in black and white (well green and white if we’re nitpicking, which of course I love to do) that he is a well behaved cat and he uses his scratching post faithfully, so by the pure accident of not going to live with this person until a later date he kept the claws that he has done no damage with anyway! No one would have known that he had no intention of scratching anything he shouldn’t! And yet she STILL doesn’t make the connection, she goes on to say because he is not young they wouldn’t consider having him declawed now? But why would they? He doesn’t scratch, so why?? Because it’s considered de rigueur that’s why! “We see no reason to have him declawed only for that” must mean the fur growing between his toes; well thank the Good Lord for that!!

The enlightened one has put on a comment here
2. For those of you concerned about what happens when a cat's claws are removed, it's really NOT that big a deal no matter what the politically correct, overly sensitive may say. *While further email and research has convinced me that cat's apparently *DO* lose the tip of the toe when declawed.....because the 2 cats we had throughout their lives were both declawed and had their toes after declawing, I find that the so-called mutilation is pretty insignificant, not a major disaster, as most anti-declawing people claim. As for the pain caused, for Pete's sake, a child goes through a certain amount of pain when getting an inoculation, and may even become ill with a fever, etc. for a few days, but surely you would still get the shots!!? A bit of pain, that has a useful result is sometimes necessary. We can't live in a pain free, happy fantasy Pollyanna world forever. It is *not* possible to avoid pain all the time, either -- it's a fact of life.

Where do I start with this lot of bile? She’s still banging on about the PC and overly sensitive types here, and she still thinks that declawing is not that big a deal despite admitting that email and research has convinced her that cats “apparently DO lose the tips of the toe when declawed”, that shows how much research and knowledge she actually had when she posted her original words of wisdom! She doesn’t seem to know much about cats, not even her own. Can any of you cat lovers tell me that you haven’t looked at any part of your cat? That you wouldn’t have noticed shortened toes, half paws in effect? That you don’t know every inch of your furry companion’s body and caress it and check it for irregularities? I know we do, and yet this all knowing person who has taken it upon herself to advise other people to declaw their cats didn’t even notice that her cats’ had shortened toes, in fact by some miracle she claims her cats still had their toes! And so she proclaims the so-called mutilation pretty insignificant, comparing it to a child having inoculations (which as far as I know doesn’t involve having body parts removed) and becoming ill with fever. Regrettable yes, some kids do, but inoculations are to protect the child for life. A fever following declawing however is the same as a fever following any major amputation on any animal, be it human, feline or any other, a fever following a surgical amputation indicates infection in the stump and that can cause gangrene and can kill! I don’t call that insignificant! Oh! A bit of pain that has a useful result is sometimes necessary is it? Useful result for the owner perhaps, but there again it isn’t the owner who is having the bit of pain is it? No it’s the cat, who is probably having a tremendous amount of pain in fact and who can’t stay in bed with access to painkillers, a bedpan and elbow crutches for walking with, no the cat has to have the toes off, lie in a cage, probably in an Elizabethan collar round it’s neck, overnight then go home and get on with things. This person might in fact be the original Pollyanna, she is so blinkered and indoctrinated to the merits of declawing that she dismisses all pain and distress as a fact of life, which it may well be when it is unavoidable but declawing is elective and totally unnecessary so by choosing to declaw their cat an owner is actually opting to voluntarily cause their cat great pain.
In real life, some cats are very destructive with their claws, and won't use a scratching post. Does an owner have to suffer, because of that, by not declawing? Doesn't seem right to me.
Well it seems more right to me than the cat suffering because the owner is too damn lazy to spend time teaching their cat about the scratching post.

Here’s another comment that had me reaching for the Diazepam before I could even contemplate commenting on it
"What a relief to find a site that doesn't condemn a cat owner for getting his kitty declawed.”

Give me strength what sort of bloke talks about “getting his kitty declawed”, my mental picture of him is a right big girls blouse, polishing his specs and his furniture constantly. Lets see what else macho man has to say…

Along with the fact that my little buddy absolutely hates getting his claws trimmed, he screams and wails at the site of anything metal while he's held (doesn't need any contact to start the panic). Well I bet his poor little buddy bloody screamed and wailed at the surgery then as he was prepped for his declawing, but let’s hear the story:
My kitty, Simba, was terrorizing the dog (a female Papillion named Gizmo).Even while Simba was sleeping, the dog refused to walk past,fearing a ruthless attack - wimpering and crying to be helped past the cat, sometimes even wetting herself in desperation. Simba's attacks were getting more severe than the normal 'slash and dash', we would see the dog yelping and running by with Simba attached - all claws embedded in the dog and biting into Gizmo's throat. The dog's fear of the cat extended to waiting while the cat ate (being to afraid to eat near him),and having 'accidents' just to avoid going past the cat. The dog even started having skin problems from all the scratch wounds she was receiving from Simba - just like my girlfriend and her daughter (who are allergic to cats - though love Simba). Typically when Simba scratched someone (human or otherwise), it wasn’t just a quick slash - most of the time it was like a digging, continued slashing until the claws got stuck in the victim.
My God, it’s not a cat he’s got it’s a wild beast that slashes ickle doggies in their sleep and makes them pee their pants. OK which animal was there first? Was Simba overthrown by the new doggy? Was his furry nose pushed out of joint by an excited pup who thought everyone was his friend and bothered Simba to the point that he lashed out? Did he or his girlfriend try seperating them? Did they just stand and watch this killer cat picking on ickle doggy? Who knows, the bloke doesn’t bother to give any background, he’s just sooooo relieved that he isn’t going to get condemned for declawing his kitty!
Simba just got declawed yesterday, and is still bandaged up and sore. We feel very sad for him, and wished he would have calmed down (we kept giving him 2nd chances to stop being so aggressive),but the injuries he was delivering to the dog and us were getting to be too much. It was either declawing or animal shelter, and though we hate seeing him feel so bad - we couldnt let him go to a shelter.
As I said before, I bet his poor little buddy bloody screamed and wailed at the surgery then as he was prepped for his declawing, he would certainly catch sight of plenty of metal there. But wait, he said Simba GOT declawed, that implies Simba had a choice….in fact Simba had no choice because Simba has no voice, and that voice might just have come in handy for Simba to explain just what the problem was with the dog, the girlfriend and the child, problems that might not have been down to Simba at all but for which the poor cat had to carry the can! I wonder how they gave him second chances and how they expected him to know about these chances?

FYI - Simba was found in a box that was in a garbage pile at an apartment building (waiting to be picked up), when he was less than 2 weeks old. We all took turns feeding him with a bulb syringe for the first month that we had him.
What’s this got to do with the price of fish? Is this some sort of attempt to prove he loves his kitty? Funny sort of love!

Escaping from the house...There are at least 2 doors to get through to go in or out, with small areas enclosed by the doors....couple times that we've taken Simba outside, he hates it - if your holding him, he clings to you; if you leave out there, he wails and pounds at the door (wanting to get back in).We actually tested him, to see what his reaction would be if he got out." I can tell you, he’ll be flaming dead seeing as he has no claws to defend himself, another mutilated life prisoner is added to the list!

Anyway that’s macho kitty-man on his way with a clear conscience and we only have one more comment left.

Here the enlightened one introduces it –
Excerpt from an email received, used with permission
Thank you for your reasonable stance on declawing. So much more sensible than most of the anti-declawing web sites I've seen. Is it really better to have a constant battle with yelling at the cat, or spraying them with water and still not being able to keep them from destroying that $1500 couch or $350 drapes?
So if it doesn’t keep them from destroying the furniture why yell at them or spray them with water? Why not take a chill pill and buy one or two goods sized scratching posts and spend time showing the cat what to do with them?
Or for the cat to have a few days of discomfort followed by a much more rewarding relationship with its owner? Is it better to get so frustrated that an owner has their pet euthanized or begins putting them outside where they can get killed by dogs or cars and die a painful death, or a simple (usually safe and complication free) procedure?
Again we have this much more rewarding relationship cr*p, the owner gets the reward here, the cat just doesn’t get yelled at or sprayed with water for scratching the couch and that is because his poor bloody paws are too sore and sensitive. I wonder what this few days of discomfort would be described as if it was the owner having nails removed, I wrote a blog a while back based on the experience of a friend who had to have some toenails removed. She didn’t describe it as a few days of discomfort, she described it as three months of pain, and remember that was toenails only, removed from beds of flesh, not toe ends with claws attached sawed, cut or lasered through with resulting injury to adjacent bone, tendons, skin and fur.

What is a person doing owning a cat in the first place if they are going to work themselves up into such a state of frustration about the cat that they kill it themselves or put it outside to be killed by dogs or cars? This person sounds unhinged!
A simple (usually safe and complication free) procedure. Don’t make me larf!! We all know, we’ve read, we’ve seen, evidence to the contrary. Declawing isn’t safe, it can kill or cripple a cat, complications are the rule rather than the exception, you only have to read some of the sites that we all post on Y/A where complications are well documented to know this. This is what worries me, people like this can give opinions that could result in a cat losing it’s toes (or life) if read by someone gullible or someone looking for justification for chopping off those offending toes.
I've owned several cats who were declawed by vets who did a good job, none of whom have acted as if they miss their claws at all. Most of them were declawed at a young age, when they were spayed or neutered. They still ran, jumped, climbed, and played with the same energy as before. They still 'knead'ed their paws as they were being petted. They still loved to play under the bedskirt jumping out to get my toes, except now I'm not yelling 'ouch' as they scratch me.

It’s all about “me” isn’t it? And isn’t playing under “bedskirts” and jumping out what cats do? Is it so wrong for them to play like this? Wrong enough to amputate toes? So she has to yell “ouch” – so what? It’s hardy life threatening to get your toes attacked. People just don’t seem to make any allowances for cats playing and accidentally involving the owner and the claws. And they don’t give them any leeway, they don’t allow them to be cats. WHY do some people have a cat and then deny the cat the right to play? What do they actually expect of the cat?

They don't accidentally get hung up in carpet (as you mentioned). People don't realize that cats can pull their own nails out like this, when they get hung up in the artificial weave of carpet or material. They also don't accidentally hurt one another while playing. Come on, how often does this happen?

You can use my comments on your web site if you like.

Oh yes the enlightened one liked very much the chance to put forward more evidence, sadly the evidence is flawed as is all the information on this cursed site.

I wonder what this person is up to these days. I wonder if her mind is still closed and locked against reason? I wonder if she is still spreading declawing propaganda? I don’t know the answers but I do know however that this site of hers is like a barrel of nuclear waste buried underground or thrown into the deep briny sea, it’s shelf life is long since over but it’s still there, on the Internet, and seeping poison that can have tremendous impact on the lives and paws of kittens and cats in the USA and Canada.

My cats have claws, have yours?

A little light relief

2009-08-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been collecting what I think of as "funnies" from various places. Some of the topics are serious ones, and I don't wish to laugh at that but I hope these bring a bit of light relief to those who campaign tirelessly for animals.
Starting off with:
Q Was I right to get my cat declawed? (Needless to say we all answered NO, but here's a good bit of information) You could have filed or cut them too but it's dangerous considering they have meat in their nails, so you have to know exactly where to stop.
Q How can I stop my cat scratching me?
A Trim the pawnails

Here's a comment about we who post arguments against declawing
Ah, the usual flurry of thumbs downs typed in by middle-aged women in cardigans who's homes smell of cat wee and no prospect of marriage.
Well, I qualify on two out of the three points I suppose

Moving on to the strange things cats do:
Q Does anybody know what this means? My baby, the one in my avatar, every time I wear shorts, she gets her 2 front paws on my leg and takes a little bite off my leg. Not to hurt me, just a little snip! I find this so cute. Is she trying to tell me something or is it just her way of giving me a kiss?:-)
Here's my favourite answer......I think it's a cat kiss especially when you consider that cats don't have lips. (Mine do!)

Strange noises:
1 My cat makes a noise like a telephone she sounds like she's sayong "Riiiiing Riiiinnngg" makes me laugh every time.
2 Some like to get in the bathtub and chase their tails. You hear Womp Womp Womp and that is what they are doing.
So if you hear womping in the night...don't look for your cat, he's in the bathtub.

Cats having kittens:
When my cat had kittens, she just curled up behind my closet door and let them go.

Cats in bed
I have a black and white cat and a grey and white cat what colour sheets would be best?

Hungry cats
My cat would definitely eat me. My dog would too probably.

Cats in the kitchen:
When a cat rubs you or any object they are marking their territory, he or she is claiming the microwave as his microwave also he is just letting you know he is letting you use it
Probably just to warm up his own food though!

Cat health
Q Why would my kitten not be pooping
A Same reason as you, he's constipated.
Succinct and to the point!
Q Are cats colour blind?
A Who can actually tell? You can't go up to a cat and ask "Can you see colour or not?" So maybe, maybe not!
This is very true

Words of wisdom:
1 A lot of cats have no eyelashes
2 Outdoor cats are the best. they stay in shape and poop and piss outside.
3 Cats don't know who you are unless you smell.
4 Body temp is best measured internally, rectumal temperatures may be altered by poop and gasses. Oh yuck!
5 Cats purr by vibrating a bone in their throat

Cats breeding:
1 A pregnant female cat is called a queen. If she is fixed then there is no name for her.
2 Can dogs and cats have a period? Or can they just breed right out of the womb??
3 Even female cats should be spayed by six months or they will go in to heat & drive you crazy with howling at the top of their lungs 24 hours a day, dripping all over the house & you won't sleep.
4 Harry's going to be newted today (better change his name to fish-face)

Q How much do you love your cat
A more than my cars and electric guitars

Q What colour is your cat?
A 1 He's black but you can tell he's a tabby in the sunlight.
A2 My cat is a fat orange tabby with no tail, she's so cute and we love her.

Songs about cats:
"It's really good to hear your purr, meowing my name it sounds so sweet
Coming from the paws of a kitty, hearing those meows, it makes me weak"
and this is my favourite
"Precious kitty from above whom I love, love, love!"

Odds and ends
"My friend showed me where she had been bitten. How do I no if I've got flees?"

Who's leg is like a tree trunk? The owner's or the dogs? If it's the owner I'd just clean the shoes and keep quiet (an issue about stepping in doggy-doo)

"I guess if I forced the cat to have something done for his snoring I would have had to insist on it for the humans too."

"I'm sorry but cats REALLY don't know what a birthday is.......sorry to break it to you."

"My cat poops only when classical music is playing"

"My cat's got a loud purr and if he lies of your feet you get a message" (He must be a psychic medium)

Q Sometimes when I go next to a cat (Except Polo) they run away, why?
A Maybe you could have a ghost on you. They don't like that

Q What should I call my black and white cat?
A Cabbage John

Confrontational (needless to say on the declawing subject)
Do you also have a problem with a baby's ambilical cord being cut at birth?
No! Nor it's umbilical cord but that's no argument against declawing mate.

Q Where does your cat sleep?
A1 The little male cat sleeps with his body wrapped around the dog's nose and the female cat sleeps up against the dog's belly and uses his penis sheath for a pillow. All three of them are just a trifle left off centre.

A2 Mine loves inside the toilet, she's really strange. Unfortunately that's sucky for me because I have to clean her.

A3 My cat loves my kid's stroller, I put the seat into the lying down position, sunshade down, and I even put a towel hanging from the sunshade so it makes a nice little "house" for him.
This isn't actually funny, it's lovely that someone with a small child still makes such a fuss of her cat but I've included it because thinking of the cat, happy in the stroller with the sunshade down and a towel as well to make sure he's cool just makes me smile.

And finally my absolute favourite
I have a Persian cat and you may know that they have faces that are smashed in.
Poor little blighters!

Thanks for your indulgence, back to a serious topic next time.

Steer clear of Marty the Loser

2009-07-11T05:26:00.000-07:00

Hells teeth! This bloke takes a bit of beating. On that stinking horrible site that demonstrates the instrument of torture known as Clearview Laser Declaw Assistant there are two testimonials. One is from a Dr Cohen from Cincinnati who gushes "The time and effort saved using the Clear View laser declaw assistant make it a valuable tool."
And the other is from a Dr Martin Losey from Winter Haven, Florida who says "Allowed us to free up a technician during the procedure, who was no longer needed to hold the leg". Oh yeah the leg is held up for him to do his dirty deed by the horrible wooden frame with the hook embedded in it. The technician can use the time saved to prepare the next victim for the conveyor belt declawing procedure, the quicker the better, he’s got to make the money back for his equipment.
But from three comments on this site which invites reviews of animal hospitals in Winter Haven http://www.insiderpages.com/s/FL/WinterHaven/AnimalHospitals it seems that Dr Losey is to be avoided at all costs.
The first review is entitled THINK ABOUT THIS VET BEFORE YOU GO THERE and says “If you use this vet you really need to reconsider if YOU LOVE YOUR DOG OR CAT, he really is not a good vet, he tried to do a un-necessary surgery on my dog that he was just guessing at and never did the proper lab work to find out what was wrong. I DO NOT AND REALLY MEAN DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS IDIOT TO ANYONE.” Posted 06/10/09 This person gave him a rating of 1 out of 5, there wasn’t an option to give zero or I think he’d have got it from her.

The second review is titled “Heard bad things too” and says “I have always heard bad things about this place and also I heard that the wife is not very nice at all, matter of fact I overheard a young girl that works there talking about how much she can't stand her and that she is very hard to work for, I am so glad I never went there after reading this” Posted 06/10/09 this was a 1 out of 5 too.
The third comment is this “Thank you for your review I'm sorry to hear about your dog, but I'm glad I'm not the only one with problems with this so called vet, I had my dog in there just for normal shots and was told that his prostrate was enlarged and he needed to be neutered right away or he would get cancer, I took him to a real vet and was told that his prostrate was NORMAL in size and the dog was ok. That man should not be practicing any more. I have heard sssoooo many things bad about them now I know, I would never recommend him to anyone!!!!” Posted 06/13/09 again 1 out of 5 for the rating.

Now isn’t it a horrible thought that someone who has attracted such bad comments, particularly the first and last ones, is performing declawing procedures on cats, probably every day.

This is what he says about himself: “I treat all my clients' pets like "fur" children. Many owners children have grown up and moved away leaving the pet behind for the parents to care for them.” and he says this around the time of his 30-year in practice party “Veterinary medicine has always been my love..It never gets boring.”

Correct me if if I’m wrong but I really don’t think this chap would amputate the finger and toes ends of children, and I’m damned if I think their Grannies and Grandads would allow it either! So what’s all this guff about fur children, and if he’s been in practice for over 30 years then he should sod off and retire and take his Clearview Laser Assistant with him, oh yes I just bet he DOES love the dosh he makes, and the new and more gruesome apparatus he gets to aid himself will provide endless entertainment for his savage habits.

Here’s the blurb about him
Dr. J. Martin Losey II DVM opened Losey Animal Hospital in 1977, after attending the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medine. Our primary interest is in small animal medicine and surgery. We have a well equipped lab for fast,easy results; a cutting and therapy laser for stifle/knee surgery which aids in faster recovery of your pet. Laser surgery makes declaws, neuters and spays faster, bloodless and less painfull for your pets. Losey Animal hospital has always been on the cutting edge of medicine for your pets ,as well as giving family like quality to our clients. We recently celebrated our 32nd anniversery of excellant pet care. My staff and myself would be pleased to care for your furry friends.

There he goes, “laser surgery makes declaws (neuters an spays) faster, bloodless and less painful.” LESS painful…why should they be in pain at all? They should never even be in the theatre having their toes amputated. And the final sentence “my staff and myself would be pleased to care for your furry friends” is just creepy, it makes me think of a pantomime undertaker standing smiling and rubbing his hands together while sizing you up for a coffin. He can’t spell excellent either!

Here’s his list of “services” I use the word services very loosely. And I think those three reviewers would agree.
Small Animals
Boarding
Surgery
Spay / Neuter
Declaw
Euthanasia
Microchip
Dentistry
Ultrasound
Laser Surgery
On-Site Pharmacy
Flea Control Program
Dietary Counseling
Behavioral Counseling
On-Site Lab

Home Alone

2009-07-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

I know Kattaddorra has already blogged about this subject very capably, but this week I heard some really sad things about cats who’s owners had taken every precaution to leave them safely cared for and still lost them. This made me think all over again about how often people ask the question “Is it Ok to leave my cat alone for x number of days?” And it’s sometimes up to a week that they are thinking of leaving them! How can they be so dense? It is pure selfishness and totally blinkered thinking because of course they want someone to say “Yes it’s fine, leave your cat, go and enjoy yourself”

Here’s Bobby’s story by his mum Tina
“Please say a prayer for my little cat. We arrived home from our holiday, and I immediately rang the cattery - couldn't wait to get my cat home again. Was told he had been taken to the vets that morning while we were travelling home, he was very poorly after an Asthma attack. Rang the vets and was told to go straight away as it didn't look good. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. By the time we got to the vets he was desperate and hanging on to his poor little life. He was in an oxygen tent, suffering, in pain and his breathing was desperate. He was dying. If we hadn't have arrived when we did, they said they would have had to put him to sleep without us. We were just in time to say goodbye. My baby has gone.”

Poor Bobby, poor Tina, and this was a well loved cat who had been left in a cattery, just imagine then if he’d been home alone, with bowls of stale water, food gone off, litter tray dirty and then had an asthma attack. He would have died, in pain and fear alone. This is what could happen, do they care?

Here’s another cat Angus who would have died alone
“We went to Cornwall in March to visit family. On the Thursday before we came back my friend called at 8pm to tell me that my boy Angus had been rushed to the vets in the afternoon and unfortunately he had passed away. It is bad enough when it happens when you are there for them but when you are not there, it is worse. I felt really bad for my friend having to go through all that for me, but I know he was well looked after during his last few hours.”

Luckily the friends were there to care for Angus, but who would have rushed him to the vet if he’d been locked in and left by himself, no one and he would have lain dead until his mum came and found him.

This one shows that even asking a friend to care for your cat doesn’t guarantee he/she will be safe
“That happened to me a few years ago I had a friend look in and feed my cat only to come home for her to say she hadn’t seen my cat for 2 days but didn’t phone me, so I went round all the neighbours houses to see if she was accidentally locked in a shed my adjoining neighbour told me to go to someone’s house, she told me the cat walked into her garage crawled under her cupboard to sleep said it looked ill, she phoned the RSPCA as she didn’t know whose cat it was so they took her away and put her to sleep I went all over Oxfordshire to find my cat to bring her home to bury. After being given the run around eventually found her & met the RSPCA man at a service station on a hot day like today, came home to be sickened they’d only left a pigeon, mouse etc in with her, and maggots I was not happy ...eventually buried her”
Frankly I would have killed the friend; I notice she said “I had a friend”, sometimes those who would leave their cats say "he has a cat flap", but who would be there to notice if he left by way of the cat flap and never returned.... This poast doesn'r say much for the efficiency of the RSPCA either, but that is old news, sadly they are pretty useless, except for asking for donations.

And finally Prudence
“The same thing happened to us 5 yrs ago my beloved Prudence had a stroke and was in the vets when we returned from holiday. She was 18yrs and extremely intelligent she had hung on for us I am sure. I have never heard anything like the sound she made when we arrived and feel sure to this day that she was trying to talk to me. She had to be put to sleep and it broke my heart I will miss her forever.”

Imagine Prudence locked in, alone, in the dark, scared, dirty probably and finally.... dead.

I wish I could understand what makes people tick, what makes them think that cats can be neglected for up to a week at a time just so they can go away and enjoy themselves?

These three cat mums are obviously very upset, I wonder what they would say to someone considering abandoning their cat at home – alone.

Declawing - a human experience

2009-06-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

Recently a friend, P, had to have some of her toenails removed, and after remarking jokingly that she was going to be declawed I thought maybe hearing what this similar procedure was like for a human might give us an inkling of an idea what cats go through when they have their claws, and toe ends, removed. P was kind enough to oblige and wrote down her experiences.

P was firstly given this written explanation of what would happen. “This operation is conducted to remove part or all of a diseased, damaged, thickened or ingrowing toenail. We are going to take your toenails off permanently because of severe ingrowing toenails. Two big toes and two adjacent toes on both feet will be operated on. Firstly your left foot, followed by surgery on your right foot at a later date. Note that only one foot would be attended to at a time with a break in between surgery. Please read the document and if you agree, please sign the consent form.”

Well this sounds very frightening to me, I think I would have limped a mile to avoid that. And I would imagine that seeing it all written down in black and white was pretty scary for P too. But imagine, if you will, if she hadn’t been given that explanation, didn’t even have ingrown toenails but had normal healthy feet and knew nothing about any forthcoming procedure until the day came that she was bundled into an ambulance, by the consent of someone she trusted, against her will and delivered to the hospital.
Having read and understood the proposed treatment P was then invited to sign the consent form and rightly so, it would be unthinkable not to be given the choice once she knew what was going to happen, at that point she may have decided not to go through with it after all. Ah but, going back to our earlier imagined scenario, the P that knew nothing of what was in store for her, that P was delivered to the hospital with no idea why, or for that matter where she was. No explanation given, no consent form signed, at least not by P but by someone who had elected themselves as her carer and had decided that this operation would make her easier to care for so had booked her in for it that day. She was then taken and put in a small room, almost like a cage, maybe surrounded by other people, also in small rooms, who were frightened and calling out for explanations and for someone they trusted to come and take them home.

P tells it like this: “I was weighed firstly to assess how much anaesthetic to administer”, now my friend obviously knew what was happening, why she was being weighed, and I guess she was asked kindly to get on and then off the scales. I don’t think our imaginary P was informed, I think it’s more likely that the door to her small room was opened without preamble and she was picked up buy someone much bigger than herself and dumped on a scale and held still while her weight was noted. Then she was returned to her small room to wait and wonder.

P says “Once on the operating table that was arranged for me to be comfortable in a sitting position as I wanted to watch, the anaesthetic local injections were administered around the big toe and the adjacent toe on my left foot. I watched as they scrubbed up and set the sterile trolley. The surgeon tested for numbness and asked if I was comfortable. Lovely music was played quietly to create a relaxing atmosphere. I was asked for the last time if I wanted to go through with the operation. I said yes. The procedure began “

Meanwhile imaginary P has been taken into theatre and given a general anaesthetic. Do you remember the favoured anaesthetics of Paul the Pimp in one of my previous blogs? If you do you will know that P might not only have been given intravenous anaesthesia but she might have also had ketamine sprayed into her eyes if she had she struggled and been hard to restrain. I reckon I'd struggle and be hard to restrain wouldn't you? We'd all have the ketamine sprayed in our eys wouldn't we? Imaginary P has been given a cocktail of anaesthesia and is now at risk of seizures, vomiting, tremors, spastic jerking movements and hypo or hyper thermia amongst other things. She is also at risk of appearing completely sedated, but still being able to move, even kick, bite or scratch, in response to sharp auditory stimulation due to the Xylazine she has been given. I hope she doesn’t move or kick at a crucial moment in the removal of her toenail.

My friend P was lying comfortably on the table, watching the procedure, by her own power of choice. Unconscious but twitching, imaginary P was hauled up into stirrups with her legs held really tight and tourniquets were strapped round her legs, first one and then, later, the other
My friend P says: First an incision was made down the sides and bottom of the big toenail. Another instrument was put down my toe and the nail and the nail levered steadily off. The nail came off very easily but my big toe nail bed bled profusely. Chemicals on tiny swabs were placed slowly but deeply around the matrix (cuticles) to destroy all future nail growth. The adjacent toe was operated on next and exactly the same routine was carried out.

Meanwhile mythical P has turned into a cat (this is quite feasible, after all this is an imaginary exercise) and is having a traditional declawing procedure, paw number one is held securely aloft and the tourniquet is applied. Toe by toe is extended and using either a scalpel or a guillotine type of clipper the vet cuts through bone, nerves, ligaments and tendons. Inevitably there is crushing of bone, tearing of skin and bruising, how could there not be? This happens five times on each front paw, with the possibility of a further 4 on each back paw. Each separate wound has to be sutured and then the paw tightly bandaged to prevent haemorrhaging

P goes on to say: Once the bleeding was brought under control, sterile dressings were applied then wrapped generously in bandages and tube gauze until both toes resembled huge white mushrooms. I was helped off the operating table and helped on with my open toed sandals, with the top fastening completely undone. On crutches I was helped out to where my daughter was waiting to take me home in the car.

Imaginary P is still under the effect of anaesthesia and as that effect wears off may experience as Paul the Pimp puts it “episodes of emergence delirium”, imaginary P, the cat, will gradually become aware of intense pain but will not be able to rationalise what has happened or why the paws are tightly bound, and so will start to worry at the bandages, try to stagger to her feet and begin to cry out in pain and confusion. As she stands and puts pressure on her ruined toes she will feel more pain and possibly the suturing will split and bleeding will begin Perhaps the veterinary practice doesn’t routinely give painkillers unless specifically requested by the carer. Certainly if pain relief is administered it will be charged for as extra. Imaginary P will stay in the small recovery cage all through the night; I guess sleep will not come easily.

My friend P is now at home where she has been told to rest with her foot elevated, her local anaesthetic is wearing off and she reaches for her painkillers.

The day after the declawing procedure imaginary P may be sent home, first being placed in the carrier she was brought into surgery in, it is inevitable that she will have to walk a few steps as she is pushed into the carrier, so far since her operation she hasn’t had her feet elevated at all. Gravity must be pulling at those stumps and making them throb like crazy. Now home she has to emerge from the carrier and hobble towards her resting place and maybe her litter box. Lift those paws high P, don’t hit the edge of the litter box with those throbbing stumps. Resting at last she tries to make sense of what has happened to her, what are the things on her paws, why can’t she get them off, why does she hurt so much.

Three days later my friend P drives herself to hospital for a check up, her dressings were removed, the wounds cleaned and fresh dressings applied. She was asked to return after another week had passed.

Mythical P has had to resume life; pain relief if given was for a couple of days. Litter box must be used, children maybe, or dogs, must be dealt with, sore weeping stumps still wrapped must be protected. Pain makes the best of us irritable. No claws for defence, maybe P will bite instead.

My friend P says: "in between hospital visits I went to the nurse at the doctor’s surgery as I had pain in my knee and couldn’t balance to apply my dressings. An infection set in and at my next visit to the nurse a week later she called in the doctor. He confirmed I had a bad infection. My toes were very red, swollen, oozing and painful. A prescription for antibiotics was given. A week later I returned only to have the doctor say the infection was still there and was given another prescription for further antibiotics. The pain was terrible and I had to take painkillers also. "

Oh no, imaginary P also has an infection, not only that but she has damage to the radial nerves and possibly bone chips working to the surface of the stump. For a time it seems that the infection will take over and one of her paws might have to be amputated. She hasn’t been able to elevate her paws, she wasn’t given crutches to walk with nor an advice sheet telling her to rest, she’s had to walk, jump and scratch in her litter box.

My friend P says The foot clinic at the hospital were horrified at my experience and told me not to go to my doctors surgery anymore and if I had any problems to go and see them. My toes eventually started to heal and I started to leave off the dressings. Healing process had taken three months and a lot of pain

Meanwhile imaginary P is still confused, demoralised, withdrawn, defenceless, and as cats do she is hiding her pain. She still has the instinct to scratch but doing so is useless and she just rubs her wounded toes on surfaces, slipping off and making them sore, her family think this is cute and smile to see her unable to claw the couch, carpet or drapes. Money well spent they say.

My friend P finishes by saying “The same operation on my right big toe and adjacent toe took place after three months. I have had three visits to the hospital for a change of dressings since then and they are keeping a closer eye on me this time. So far all my toes look healthy”.

Imaginary P is frustrated, her stumps still hurt, she bites when scared or taken by surprise. She hides from children and dogs because she fears they will hurt her. She can’t stand the feel of rough litter on her sensitive stumps so she has started to pee and poop where it feels softer. She wonders why she is being yelled at and sprayed with water. Her back starts to ache because she doesn’t walk as cats should. She is a disappointment to her family. Perhaps they will decide to get rid of her after all or maybe get another cat to play with her, if course it will have to be declawed too incase it hurts her, and so it goes on, cat after cat made permanently disabled.

P also wrote this: Cats do not give consent; cats do not rest their legs for a day after the operation to stem bleeding. In the 21st century it is deplorable that de-clawing of cats still happens in some parts of the world that are considered civilized! Cats are born with claws for a reason. If any humans don’t like furniture being clawed then they should not own a cat. Cats are beautiful and loving creatures. Cats do not have any say in how we look after them. They totally trust us to do the right things for them and love us back a hundredfold.

People of the world, please do all you can to ban declawing of cats immediately.

On behalf of our loving pets…. thank you

And from me…thank you Pammy

Elsie can’t lose – he gets it both ways

2009-06-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well now, here we have a chappie, let’s just call him Elsie at random, who owns an all cat clinic in Denver, he believes that “all cats should lead happy and healthy lives” and so he offers “Spays, Neuters and Declaws”. Oh what fun for the cats to be declawed, how healthily they shall limp through the rest of their days on ruined paws. He also says “we offer spays and neuters at an affordable price. We also provide pain medication and fluids in the price of every surgery.” Well give the man a carrot – he recognises the need for fluids and pain medication not only for necessary surgery such as neutering but it seems that even the cats subject to cosmetic surgery just might feel a tad of pain and so he includes it in the price, very big of him.

Now then, this toe amputating wonder boy has made a study of cat behavioural issues, and he’s getting himself a bit hot under the collar about litter box aversion, because he’s gone and found out that over 5.9 million cats are taken to shelters each year and that 73% are killed. And on this site there is this fact
Seventy percent (70%) of cats turned in to pounds and shelters for behavioral problems are declawed. (National Survey from pounds & shelters obtained by Caddo Parrish Forgotten Felines & Friends) source

So Elsie, lets do the math, 70% of the 5.9 million cats surrendered each year are declawed so I get that to be 4,130000 million cats, of which 73% are killed which is 3,014900 cats killed each year because of behavioural problems caused by you and you ilk who cut off their toes! This, Elsie, is what you cause:
“Behavioral problems frequently haunt declawed cats. By far, the commonest thing we see is cats not using the litter box. When cats have stress beyond what they can take, it often shows up as a litter box problem and declawing makes them stress intolerant, in general, for the rest of their lives,”

If you were doing that to humans you’d be a mass murderer sonny!

But never fear readers! Not only does Elsie cause this problem and cause these unnecessary, deaths – OH NO! He also solves the problems too because by purest chance he also owns a company that manufactures a special cat litter for cats with litter box problems, described oh so coyly as “wee problems”. Here is some of the advertising bumf

“Inappropriate elimination,” “litter box aversion,” and “house soiling” are just some of the kinder, gentler names given to a wee kitty problem—one that’s a leading cause of cat relinquishment.”
“The company (Elsie’s company) suggests that it may help newly adopted cats beginning their litter box training, as well as “problem” cats who’ve developed new potty problems.”

Well wouldn’t you just know it, those happy and healthy cats that have been declawed by Elsie are now lucky enough to have someone to solve their “potty problems”, and it just happens to be Elsie!

Now this must be a dream scenario for our lad, not only does he make a lot of money from making those cats happy and healthy by declawing them, he also makes a lot more money by selling the morons that own the happy healthy cats some special litter to solve the problems that he’s made in the first place! It sells for about $11 to $19 a bag. Looking at the fawning testimonials on his website it seems that a lot of people with cats with litter box problems have found that this Cat Attract litter is wonderful! Hmm, how many of them have declawed cats? I’d put money on 100% of them. Would you agree?

Elsie “won't say what is the active ingredient in the litter that makes cats more attracted to the box but said it is not catnip because only 50 percent of cats are drawn to that herb. Since he introduced the product in December, Elsie said Precious Cat has doubled its Cat Attract sales.”

Yippeeee Elsie is going to be stinking rich – he can’t lose can he? He declaws them and gets BIG bucks, and then if he’s lucky and they join the four million plus club that develops “potty problems” he sells their morons some special litter that only he knows the secret ingredient of. The man is a genius! He will take the secret to his grave, in a luxurious coffin because he's stinking rich, secure in the knowledge that he has made cats happy& healthy

Now, this is going against all my instincts and will stick uncomfortably in my craw because I do not want this butcher to make a penny piece out of the tragic results of declawing, but, if his wonder litter really DOES attract cats that otherwise wouldn’t use their litter boxes and if it saves the lives of even some of those poor crippled little souls then I’m going to have to start recommending it on Yahoo Answers. That is because it is the cats and their comfort that are of vital importance and not my hatred of declawing vets.

So here is the link to his site and the product is called Cat Attract.

God Bless those little cats that need special litter for their problems and give people the patience to treat them kindly.

For sheer dangerous ignorance this takes the dog biscuit!

2009-06-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

Cha Cha Answers

QUESTION
“Can you de claw dogs”

ANSWER
“The nails of dogs are attached to bone, unlike a cats that are attached to tendons and tissues. De clawing a dog would be painful”

First the anonymous poser of the question should be strung up by his or her finger ends for even thinking of declawing a dog.

But an even more painful fate should await this shining example of a brainless opinionated amoebic twit who has splattered a number of stupid words on this site that, if an equally brainless moron was to see them, could encourage them in their sick quest to amputate precious toes!

“Dogs nails are attached to the bone” - Excuse me Mr/Ms Moron so are cats nails!
“Declawing dogs would be painful” - Doh! Of course it would BUT CATS FEEL PAIN TOO don’t y’know?

What a depth of knowledge this turd doesn’t have! What sheer arrogance to dismiss in two sentences the magnitude of mutilating, forever, a cat’s precious toes.

Declawing Paul

2009-06-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

Well folks here we have another stupid statement, but this should carry a red for danger warning because he is a vet! He has the honour of being the latest “pimp” on the Hall of Shame and rightly so. Here’s what he’s had to spout:
“In twenty years of practice, I have found few procedures that elicit such polarizing opinions and is more misunderstood, than the issue of feline declawing.
(The “is more misunderstood” are his words and grammar, that doesn’t inspire much confidence if he can’t even string a proper sentence together does it? So Paul if you’re reading this, it is ARE misunderstood, OK?) Now folks, how do you reckon we are misunderstanding? What is there to misunderstand about amputating a cat’s toes? If they’re gone they’re gone, so I think we’ve pretty much got the idea what declawing is all about.
“Several European countries have outlawed it and several counties in California are attempting to illegalize it as well”. Hmm I wonder if he wonders why those nasty European countries have outlawed it and why even his fellow countrymen are trying to “illegalize” it (is that really a word?) That adds up to an awful lot of people who misunderstand declawing Paul, are you absolutely certain it’s not you who is the one who doesn’t comprehend what it’s all about!
Moving on, he says “ With the advent of laser technology and greatly improved pain control, I do not understand the opposition to a procedure that is arguably responsible, more than any other procedure, of improving the quality of life for millions of cats by allowing them to live in our homes as indoor pets.”
Well it’s quite obvious he DOESN’T understand isn’t it? There are several issues here Paul me old fruit, the first one being this greatly improved pain control, what that says to me is that cats are being given stronger pain medication (and anyone who’s taken the real I-AM pain killers know how woozy and nauseous they make you feel) because someone has realised that cats in the past have suffered greatly with post op, and sometimes long term, pain.

Next the poor misguided chap states that declawing is “arguably” responsible more than any other procedure for improving the quality of life for millions of cats by allowing them to live in our homes as indoor pets”.
Well yes I’ll argue with that, I’d say that declawing is responsible for millions of cats being killed, crippled, dumped and surrendered over the years. Did someone mention that this procedure has been available for approximately 30 years or did I dream it in a nightmare? Well taking into account that he has written millions in the plural, even two million cats declawed over the last 30 years works out at 66,666.666 a year (quite a co-incidence that, isn’t that the Devil’s phone number?) and that means that declawing is UN-arguably responsible for AT LEAST 666,666.66 front claws going into surgical waste bags per year and thousands more back claws too. But Dear Old Declawing ALLOWS them to live in “our” homes as pets (not in my home except over my dead body!) HUH! What he should have said is declawing allows them to crap in those homes, pee in those homes, bite the humans in those homes, be shut in the basements of those homes, and many a time be kicked out of those homes, or taken out in a body bag! Declawing also allows humans to worship at the shrines of couches and drapes, until they’re crapped on at least. (Which reminds me, totally off topic; this morning I saw someone justifying declawing by saying she doesn’t want to be scratched to death! To death? Blimey that must be one great big moggie missus!)
Now then the next part of his perspective is rather interesting
“It has been my experience that properly performed laser declawing is no less humane than any other surgical procedure, leaving no physical or psychological scars and produces pain-free, healthy cats unaware that they have been declawed.”
So! Paul have you been declawed? If not how can you know that laser declawing produces pain free healthy cats? Huh? After all, you say it has been your experience – YOUR experience, well I beg to differ it is the CAT that experiences the pain, how the hell do you know if the cat has physical or psychological scars? And how do you KNOW the cat doesn’t feel phantom pain in the ghost toes? It is a well-known fact that amputees can still feel a missing limb and have very real pain from it. How do you know that those cats’ stumps don’t ache? And where on this Earth do you get the idea that cat’s are unaware they have been declawed…my giddy aunt I think they will definitely notice the post op pain and blood, especially if they’re crammed into an Elizabethan collar to stop them trying to chew at the bandages to get to the wounds, and I think they will notice they don’t walk the same anymore, they will certainly notice they can’t plug in and have a good stretch anymore, or scratch an itch, or hook a toy or a juicy piece of meat and then of course there is getting into that litter box and having to scrape the contents with those poor sore paws. Oh yes, they’re aware of it all right Paul lad. You obviously see cats as dim-witted lumps of fur that don’t know their arse from their elbow but here’s the news…cats are intelligent, they know things we don’t know and they most assuredly know when their toes are gone!
Just a word about this no-less humane than any other surgical procedure tripe as well, most other surgery is either to save a life or to neuter the cat, no-one would argue with any of these procedures because they are necessary, declawing is cosmetic surgery and unnecessary and THAT is what makes it inhumane.

“Proper anesthetic protocols greatly enhance the success of any surgical procedure. This is particularly true with declawing. The combination of xylazine, ketamine, acepromazine and buprinorphine provides an excellent combination of sedation and analgesia. It produces a gradual, peaceful recovery and reduces episodes of emergence delirium occasionally seen with shorter lasting anesthetic protocols!”
Now this bit frightens me to death, lets look first at Xylazine, here are some facts about it
Within the first 3 to 5 minutes after intramuscular or subcutaneous injection, vomiting can occur. Since vomiting following xylazine administration is known to occur in cats, it is commonly used to induce vomiting when necessary. Adverse effects of xylazine include muscle tremors, seizures, slowed heart rate with partial heart block and slowed breathing rate. Increased urination sometimes occurs in cats. Despite appearing completely sedated, animals can still move, even kick, bite or scratch, in response to sharp auditory stimulation.
HERE for the link to this
ANIMALS CAN STILL MOVE, EVEN KICK, BITE OR SCRATCH IN RESPONSE TO SHARP AUDITORY STIMULATION. And what about sharp scalpel, laser or guillotine stimulation eh?

Moving on to Ketamine
For aggressive cats unable to be restrained for injection, ketamine can be sprayed into the mouth or eyes. Adverse effects of ketamine include increased blood pressure, elevated heart rate, respiratory depression, vocalization, erratic and prolonged recovery, spastic jerking movements and muscle tremors. In rare instances, ketamine has been shown to induce seizures. When given intramuscularly, ketamine injection can be painful.
HERE for the link to this

Acepromazine
Acepromazine causes hypotension due to decreased vasomotor tone. It may change heart and respiratory rate, and thermoregulatory ability allowing for either hypo- or hyperthermia. Acepromazine is usually less effective if given after the animal is excited. It provides no analgesia and the tranquilizing effect of the drug can be overcome unexpectedly particularly by sensory stimulation. Occasionally, animals (particularly cats) may have a paradoxical response to acepromazine and become excited, or aggressive.
HERE for the link to this

Buprinorphine
Buprenorphine is 30 times as potent as morphine
HERE for the link to this

Yes, I know I have only picked out some things to illustrate my point, but the links are there to be checked out. My God what a potent combination, have you seen the side effects? Two of them can cause seizures, one can cause slow heart rate while another can cause elevated heart rate, and yet another can make it go either way. One is also used to induce vomiting in cats, one is less effective if given when an animal is already excited but it can ALSO cause excitement. Now I would imagine a cat in a veterinary hospital is bloody terrified never mind excited! And imagine being that cat, scared stiff and struggling to get away and along comes someone and sprays you in the bloody eyes!!

Would any of you decent intelligent people want that mixture of muck introducing into your cat’s system?

God help us the man says it produces a gradual, peaceful recovery and REDUCES episodes of emergence delirium, that is always assuming they don’t kill your cat by under or over stimulation of the heart, choking to death on vomit, having a seizure, or getting over heated or too cold. Or that it doesn’t bleed to death.

Laser technology offers three distinct advantages over conventional declawing techniques. First the heat generated by the laser has an antibacterial effect. This effect combined with the superior hemostasis achieved with lasers, (resulting in less intraoperative and postoperative hemorrhage) greatly reduces post operative bacterial infection.
Oh well, let’s all cheer for LESS hemorrages and REDUCED infection shall we?
Secondly, tourniquets are not required when using lasers. Eliminating tourniquets reduces ischemic necrosis and cell death, thus reducing pain and increasing the speed of recovery.
He’s damning himself out of his own pen! Lasering REDUCES those horrible things and it REDUCES pain, he is admitting that there is still danger of 1. The death of a cell or group of cells in contact with living tissue. 2. The local death of cells resulting from, e.g., loss of blood supply, bacterial toxins, or physical or chemical agents.
And by stating that lasering REDUCES pain he is not only admitting that the cutting method causes pain but also that there is STILL a measure of pain associated with lasering.
Thirdly, laser technology provides exceptional analgesia. I did not believe it until I experienced it first-hand. Despite the denial in some academic circles that lasers provide significant analgesia, any veterinary surgeon proficient in the use of lasers will testify to its profound analgesic properties.
Come on Paul, don’t give me that experienced first hand rubbish again, have YOU had for example a finger end removed by laser? No I didn’t think so. What you mean is you have first hand experience of clinically observing the level of pain a declawed cat wakes up with. And what about the veterinary surgeons who are NOT proficient in the use of lasers HUH?? What about the learners? The bunglers? The BUTCHERS out for quick bucks?? The only thing profound here is your imagination.
Seeing a kitten (observational science) normal and often playing the day after the laser declawing is more convincing than any double-blinded, Koch-postulate confirming study. The analgesic effect of laser has made it indispensable in my operating room, especially for more painful procedures, such as orthopedics and amputations.
Well he’s got me with the Koch-postulate study, I Googled it and it’s gobbledegook to me. I’m nort sure even who he reckons is double blinded but my vote would be that it’s him. But this observational science, well that’s a posh term for watching something isn’t it? Seeing a kitten NORMAL? Normal is having claws mate, having CLAWS! I hope the poor little blighters DO play the day after the op, but what with that cocktail of anaesthesia and the toeless paws I have my doubts.
AHA!!! He extols the virtues of laser declawing and then goes on to say it’s indespensible for MORE PAINFUL PROCEDURES SUCH AS orthopedics and AMPUTATIONS! What is declawing? Amputation of the toe ends – got you Paul, with your own pen you’ve said that declawing is a more painful procedure! Another case rested.
Not all indoor cats require declawing. You do surprise me Paul, but there again two synonyms for require are “want” and “call for” so I suppose you’re right in a way if you put it thus: Not all cats WANT declawing or not all cats CALL FOR declawing. I think you underestimate though Paul, I think it should be NO indoor cats require declawing.
It is comforting to know that in cases when it is necessary to maintain the integrity of the human-animal bond, that we have an effective, humane surgical procedure. Please can someone pass me a bucket? Sickly sweet words… “it’s comforting” isn’t that nice? Humane? Isn’t that rubbish?
I encourage any vet that performs declaws and is not using lasers, to strongly consider this technology. And I encourage him to boil his head.
I also invite any person that remains skeptical about the claims I have made in this article, to visit our hospital and follow a declawing case from admittance to release. No thanks!
As it is often said, "Seeing is Believing." Yes I know, at least we agree on that. I’ve seen the pictures and I’ve watched the videos and I DO believe that declawing is EVIL

Sorry it's so long, to those of you who ploughed on to the end - thank you for reading it and thank you for caring!

Rule Britannia

2009-05-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

I often grumble about my country of birth. England to put it bluntly has gone to the dogs. Morals have completely disappeared, most of our traditions are now politically incorrect, including Christmas and Easter, the Labour government is being pilloried, the Countryside Alliance have infiltrated the Conservative Party and are baying for the hunting ban to be repealed while MP’s are living high off the hog using taxpayers money to clean their moats and buy chandeliers, champagne and light bulbs. I know that cruelty is at an all time high and that dreadful things are happening everyday to humans and animals alike.

But this morning it dawned on me, you know what? For all that, I’m bloody proud to be English! And the reason is that there are some bog standard, run of the mill, everyday people who are absolutely, wonderfully and genuinely kind and who love their animals just the way they are.

I was browsing an English cat lover’s forum and came across a question from someone who’s cat keeps insisting on scratching the wallpaper off, and I believe when they said off they mean just that, the wallpaper is gone, removed, shredded and merely tatters remain. Full of trepidation I looked at the replies, I say that because as readers may know I frequent Yahoo Answers Cats section quite a lot and on there a question like this would receive numerous answers from those over the pond in the USA, I then decided to compare English answers and USA answers to this type of question.

So I did a bit of a search for a similar question on Y/A USA, and these are some of the suggestions to similar problems. OK here we go, the least offensive is of course trim the claws down, no problem with that if the cat is happy to sit and have the claws clipped without panicking, if that solves the problem then sighs of relief all round. Then there are the dreaded soft paws, now I shouldn't criticize this weird invention because I know that their use has saved many a cat from being declawed but somehow I still don’t like the thought of sticking rubber caps onto cats claws. For a start do they not stop the claws from retracting into the sheaths? I would imagine they’d feel pretty uncomfortable in that case and think that’s probably one of the reasons why cats chew them off as quickly as possible, plus the thought of a cat with pink/blue/ yellow caps on it’s claws “looking cute” seems a bit sad and undignified for such beautiful creatures. And when they chew them off do they not run the risk of making their toes sore or even swallowing them? Could they get lodged in their intestines I wonder?
Then there is often sticky paper suggested, this must be something like the glue traps that small creatures get stuck on and perish. I wouldn’t like to think I’d deliberately made one of my cats get his paws stuck and have to drag them off the sticky paper risking sore pads or twisted “ankles”. One suggestion was “sticky tape and shouting” whereas another of just using masking tape seemed kinder and more reasonable to me. There was a suggestion to put chilli pepper in the area – hmm what about the cat’s delicate nose and eyes then? There was one suggestion to take a tin and fill it with pebbles and shake it to “frighten” the cat away (But away from what? From the owner I’d say). Get a balloon, blow it up and squeak it at the cat, get a Doberman (Get a Doberman? How helpful is that? Would another breed not work as well I wonder?) Get a water pistol and squirt it at the cat when it claws, and here there were a variety of suggestions as to what to put in it, there was lemon juice, vinegar, chilli pepper (yes again) in water and all sorts of horrible liquids, and plain water of course. And then in the end it came, the answer I’d been waiting for “Declawing it is your best solution”.

Everything there was doing something to the cat, shout at it, frighten it, wet it, make it’s eyes sting or alter it’s paws in some way, from merely trimming the claws to sticking things on them or going all the way and amputating the offending claws along with the toes they were joined to.

So, going back to the English board here are some comments in reply to the person who asked what they could do about their cat scratching the wallpaper to kingdom come. Someone said exclude it from the room, someone else said get a scratching post and point the cat at it and give it treats when it uses it, and someone else recommended a spray from Kleeneze that smells of lemon to spray on the wallpaper (not the cat) but my favourites, and I can’t really choose from them because I love them all are: One, surprisingly from a man is “Take the wallpaper off and paint the wall”, I just love the logic and simplicity of that, remove the problem by removing the paper. Two is ”Mine scratch more when their claws are clipped to sharpen them again, but they also scratch when they need clipping and in between as well - nothing works but I still love them. And three is a beauty – “Nothing on this planet will stop our beautiful feline friends doing what they want”

See what I mean? What a difference in attitude. On the one hand it’s all about “punishment” and the other it is all about tolerance.

That’s why I’m proud to be English today.

Talk about wearing blinkers

2009-05-17T08:27:00.001-07:00

I read something this morning written by a Dr Kathy Babbitt who is the owner of Lima Animal Hospital in Ohio, she is trying to dispel some "myths" about declawing. Here is her first remark: "Declawing is the removal of the end of the toe on a cat usually to prevent destruction of household items such as a couch."

Well there we go folks, straight to the heart of the matter, lets get our priorities right and prevent the destruction of the couch. Lets destroy the cat's feet instead, it's so much cheaper than buying new couches and scratching posts do make the house look so untidy don't you think?

Then Dr Babbitt makes a glorious pronouncement: "In fact, in one survey 70 percent of owners of declawed cats reported an improved relationship with their cat after the procedure." Well yes I can see that once the owner has had the toes with the offending claws amputated they're going to feel smugly content that the couch is saved, and there'll be no need to "yell at the cat", "squirt him with water" "Bop him on the head" or even stop junior from pulling his tail or his whiskers out because the claws are in the bin at the vets.

OK, lets try this one then "Declawed cats are not as effective at climbing trees as cats with claws but declawing does not prevent tree climbing." Right, lets assume the cat can shimmy up the tree using his back claws to push with, but let's not forget that most declawed cats are not allowed outside anyway so this is probably a mute point, but for those that are outdoors and are chased by a dog or some other creature (apparently coyotes kill 99.9% of cats outside that's why you should never ever ever in their entire lives allow them so much as a whiff of fresh air outside the house, unless they are in a "cat stroller" ye gads!) and take a flying leap at a tree they are at a serious disadvantage by not having the front claws to anchor themselves by to start the climb wouldn't you say?

"Declawed cats are not as effective at catching prey as cats with claws but declawing does not prevent effective hunting." She doesn't say how she knows this, perhaps she's made a study of declawed cats that have been dumped to fend for themselves on the streets.

"Myth No. 4: A declawed cat has lost its ability to defend itself and should not be allowed outside.This one is actually true. Without claws, a cat has indeed lost an important part of its defense system. I feel strongly that declawed cats should be housed indoors only." I rest my case!

Now this makes me so damned sad! "Declawed cats do not seem to realize they have no claws. They will continue to scratch ineffectively as if they did not know the difference. Studies have shown no increased biting tendency after declawing." The poor little souls "do not seem to realise they have no claws", surely cats that have enjoyed the use of their claws know when they no longer have them, the point that Dr Babbitt is missing is that the scratching reflex is instinct, they don't have the choice they just do it, I can't imagine a more pitiful sight than a declawed cat trying "ineffectively" to do what a clawed cat can do - plug in and, fat bum going from side to side, enjoy a full stretch of their entire body from toes, up their legs and through their chests and backs. (Incidentally some folks think it's hilarious to watch a declawed cat try ineffectively to strop his claws - but they are morons) Yeah OK sometimes the couch is used and we all know that couches are protected species, but equally as often a scratching post is used - if provided. Now kittens that have been declawed before they've even had the chance to realise they HAVE claws...I suppose they don't know the difference...they probably assume that the blunt little nubs they have are what they've been allotted, but I bet they also try and follow the age old activity of stropping non existent claws too. In fact I worry that all this ineffective scratching will make those amputation sites sore, chafing away at a rough surface with sensitive stumps must surely cause a lot of sore and bleeding paws. Good for topping up the takings of your friendly local vet if nothing else.

But wait...what's this about no increased tendency to bite? I have many quotes from people who think differently, here's a couple "Its been almost 5 years since the last surgery until now, Kiki hasn't been the same she shares the house with a younger male cat and her only defence are her teeth, poor Kiki got so bitter after being declawed (she had a very stuck up attitude before, but after her experience she only lets you pet her 4 times and then bites)." ( Kiki had two lots of surgery, after her declawing a claw started growing back so she was taken to another vet for a further op, she was also denied pain relief) Here's another one "When I was working at the shelter we had a couple come in one day to surrender their cat to us. Why? Because they had all 4 paws de-clawed at the same time. He was only 2 years old. They said he was the sweetest nicest cat before they had him de-clawed. After the surgery they said he turned out to be so vicious they couldn't even get near him with out him attacking. Sadly, he had to be Euthanized as we couldn't place him in anyone's home." So this declawed cat is dead! No biting there now!

Let's move on to Myth No. 6: The post-operative period involves tremendous pain.The key to alleviating this pain is to make sure your veterinarian using appropriate pain control at the time of surgery. No matter which method, including laser, is used pain is caused. The declawed cat will indeed have sore feet after surgery. The larger the cat, the more the discomfort and reluctance to bear weight. Pain relievers are often prescribed. However, this recovery period should not last longer than a week or so. Healing should be complete by two weeks.It is not normal for a cat to have chronic pain after declaw surgery. If the toes are not comfortable, the cat seems to be "walking on eggshells" after the recovery period should have been over, or seems irritable about his or her feet, a check up is warranted. Sometimes an infection is present. Sometimes a bit of surgical glue has not properly extruded and must be removed. Sometimes a residual bit of bone is creating a "stone in one's shoe" sensation and the bone must be removed. Am I just being a soft namby pamby or what? That sounds a lot like tremendous pain to me! Have you ever walked with a stone in your shoe? How many steps do you take before you have to stop and lean against a lamp post and get that dastardly stone out of that shoe? Well Dr Babbitt seems to think that a bit of residual bone might make the cat want to take his shoe off, I'd say it would! If the poor bloody thing could take it off!!! So let's get back to imagining walking in that shoe, with that stone digging in, but the shoe doesn't come off and the stone keeps on digging until lo and behold an ulcer appears, for a declawed cat this broken skin, used for digging in litter box, can be the cause of serious and life threatening infection, I know of cats that have lost limbs and lost lives through infection in declawed paws.

And finally we have Myth No. 7: A declawed cat will not use a litter box again.
It is very important that litter not get impacted in the declaw incisions during the recovery period. Shredded paper is the usual recommendation during recovery and some cats simply will not use shredded paper. The recycled newspaper litters are an excellent alternative. The only litter problem one might expect would be lack of acceptance of a new litter during the recovery period. Declawed cats do not lose their litter box instinct.

Well my friend Annie Bruce would disagree with that, she says http://www.catbegood.com/ "In three years of experience as a cat owner consultant, Annie Bruce (author of Cat Be Good) received 95% of calls about declawed cats related to litter box problems, as opposed to only 46% of calls about clawed cats—and most of those were older cats with physical ailments"

She also says "Dealing with the urine problems of a cat that cannot learn to use a litter box requires the patience of a saint. And few of us, when it comes down to it, are saints. How would you feel if your couch was totally ruined by urine? Or your carpet, pad, and floorboards stank to the point that they had to be replaced? Owners of declawed cats report the worst home repair bills. People who own clawed cats rarely experience damage as extensive as this.
Many people simply can’t and won’t face the stench of urine, and not many cat owners will let a cat destroy an entire house. In desperation, they may try to force him to live outside. When he’s outside, he is an easy target for predators"

So there you go, all those non existent problems, all those myths exploded, all those cats declawed, crippled, laughed at, dumped, dead.

Oh, and here's what that ulcerated paw would look like, you remember the one caused by the stone in the shoe sensation and a few more "pretty pictures" too

I'm sorry to those who, like me, hate the very idea and name of declawing, it's not fair to preach to the converted or add photos, but if only one person stumbles across this blog by chance and stops to think that maybe declawing isn't such a good idea then our sadness is worth it.

God bless all cats clawed and declawed, let the day come soon when all cats enjoy what is theirs by right, fully clawed paws.

Not unlike foot binding

2009-05-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

When I first got myself steamed up about the number of cats being de-toed in the USA I had recently read a novel set in China in the days of foot binding of the daughters of upper class families. The process of breaking the toes and folding them under the foot and by applying the bindings tighter and tighter over a number of years so that eventually the foot folded right back under itself and the resulting fold being more attractive the deeper it was made me think about the whole ridiculous business of some people having the sort of power over other people or animals that they can perform excruciatingly painful procedures on them and justify their actions to themselves. So using the "golden lilies" as my subject I asked the question on Y/A, was it not a similar thing to declaw a cat as to bind the feet of a Chinese girl child. Needless to say I was shot down in flames and even ridiculed for making the comparison but hey...I got the link to the petition on and got some signatures so what did I care?

But there are similarities nevertheless. Bone from the broken toes of the girls could break through the skin of the foot in the same way that bone from the shattered remains of a cat's toe can break through the remaining skin of the paw. The initial breaking and folding back of the bones in the toes of the girl child could be botched by a mother who couldn't bear to put her daughter through the excruciating pain, just the same as the cutting or lasering through bone, tendon and ligament of toes of cats can be botched, not by vets who don't want to cause pain but by vets who do this operation routinely and quickly and regard it as almost an assembly line procedure, part of a package offered with neutering and vaccination.....money in the bank.

Those wounded feet/paws in girls and cats can, did and do result in gangrenous infections and the loss of feet/paws - and lives. In the case of the Chinese girls lucky enough not to succumb to any infection they had to spend many hours each day for the rest of their lives caring for their mutilated feet, unwrapping the bindings, washing the feet, cleaning the deep fold and the remains of their toes and then rebinding the feet. This is similar to the attention that should be given to the mutilated paws of declawed cats, they should be examined daily and kept clean because even years after declawing pieces of bone can work to the surface (in the same way that pieces of tooth long extracted can work to the surface of the gum) .

Finally, having been bound the girls had to learn to walk in a new way on their "golden lilies" over very short distances, with short steps, picking their way very slowly, avoiding stepping on anything that would cause pain. Similarly declawed cats have to adapt and learn to walk in a different way, using different muscles and a different way of balancing their weight. Owners say they manage just fine...but what choice have they? Cats don't have access to wheelchairs or palanquins (covered litter for a person carried on poles, formerly used in India and the East) as used by the Chinese girls.

Foot binding is history now, why isn't declawing history too?

Cats have their lives to live whatever that life and whatever their owner chooses to inflict on them and being the brave creatures they are they hide their pain and distress and get on with it.

But that doesn't make it right does it?

Here is the petition calling for a ban on declawing of cats in the USA

The fight against declawing

2009-05-09T05:31:00.000-07:00

Last November (2008) while browsing a site called Yahoo Answers it was shockingly brought to the attention of my sister and myself that kittens and cats are still being routinely declawed in the USA (and Canada) and in fact there are certain veterinary practices that actively promote declawing included in packages with neutering and vaccination of kittens. We noticed that almost daily there were posts commenting on the after effects of declawing (onychectomy) there were people asking why their cats were toiletting outside of their litter boxes, why they were hiding away, biting, holding up paws etc etc etc and what emerged to my mind were two types of people. There are the ones who blindly follow either a family tradition of declawing pet cats and never give a thought to how it happens and what the cat thinks about it or they follow the advice of their veterinary surgeon, who let's face it charges quite a whack for what is after all cosmetic surgery. The other type are the ones who really don't care if it hurts, disfigures or disables the cat as long as A) their furniture is OK B) their kids can torment the cat without fear of getting a whack from a clawed paw in retaliation or C) they never get scratched themselves while performing their (un-neccessary) routing bath of their "kitty" (this makes me so angry...why can't they call them cats?)
Disturbed about so many toes being amputated we contacted the AVMA asking what their policy was, the reply was that each state of the USA made their own policy but the guidelines of the AVMA were that declawing should be performed as a last resort when all other means of eliminating inappropriate scratching had been tried or if the health of the owner could be compromised by a clawed cats ( e.g deficient immune system). So we contacted the chief executive of veterinary medicine in every state of the USA and the ones that bothered to reply referred us back to the AVMA statement. So it's a bit of a closed shop then? Too true!

In an attempt to do our bit to get declawing (deTOEing) relegated to history we started a group called the Claws Connection and a petition to the AVMA calling for a ban on the declawing of cats Through the group and through continuous answering of the questions on Y/A we have made some good friends and we call ourselves The Troops and we try as often as possible to educate people about the horrors and sheer non necessity of declawing cats, offer advice on solving problems that may have led people to consider declawing and provide links to sites that give good sound veterinary advice. Amongst our troops is author and cat behaviourist Annie Bruce who has written the book Cat Be Good and has two websites Good Cats Wear Black and Cat Be Good both packed full of good advice.

But what a struggle it is to spread the word, if we lived in the USA we'd be out there on the streets with posters & petition but living in England and being not quite over the hill but rapidly approaching the summit from whence it's all downhill we can only rely on the pen being mightier than the sword (or in modern speak the keyboard being mightier than the sword or the pen). We need thousands more signatures before we present it to the AVMA and we need people in the USA who are against declawing, and yes there are many many people against it, to get out there and shout about the horrors of it, to visit and lobby vets to stop doing it and to get it in the media in any old way they can.

Cats have the right to their claws, why on earth should anyone be able to decide to remove their cat's toes?