I'm all for Declawing - NOT!

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

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

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

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

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

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

702-952-41853879 E Sunset Road

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

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

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

* injuries

* diarrhea

* weight loss

* fur loss

* no appetitive

* scratching ears

* red irritated skin

* vomiting

* discharge from eyes or nose

* problems going potty

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

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

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

How can a last resort procedure be popular?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This Rookie Vet Appalls Me!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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