Declawing Pets
People often declaw their house cats to prevent them from clawing their furniture. As time has passed and people are now more educated, many of us now realize that declawing an animal causes them lots of pain and is not necessary to do to any animal.
We can save our furniture in many other ways such as putting double-sided sticky tape on the furniture or spray a chemical deterrent on the furniture to persuade the cat to not sharpen their claws or mark the furniture.
Declawing Exotic Cats
Declawing has often been used when people owned big cats whether it was in a circus, magic show or roadside attraction. The owners of those cats thought they were protecting themselves from the tiger, lion, or other exotic cat by removing their claws. Declawing was often performed by ill-informed private owners that were not trained in veterinary care and frequently botched the job, leaving the animal with bone shards that would cripple the cat and/or grow back in very uncomfortable positions.
They did not take into account that the animal involved usually was quite large, possibly several hundred pounds and would be incredibly strong, and as a consequence, removing their claws would not protect them or their customers from being attacked or maimed by the animal if they were in a position to attack. The animal involved would usually have incredible bite force and even though its claws were removed, the animal would still be very dangerous.
When an animal is declawed, the process not only removes its claws; it takes every toe down to the first knuckle leaving the animal involved in pain and makes the animal have to walk differently. The animal would then have to walk more flat footed. The process of removing the last bone in their toe makes the second bone abnormally bump and rub the cats’ pad.
As the cat ages, they usually show lameness and limping because of the declawing. The abnormal posture that they endure because of declawing leads to pad ulcerations, arthritis and development of back problems. It is not considered acceptable to declaw big cats for handling purposes, and as of 2006, the federal Animal Welfare Act no longer permits declawing of exotic cats.
Mauri: A Female Declawed Lion
Many of our rescued cats at Turpentine Creek suffered such trauma. One of our female lions, Mauri, suffered declawing at the Indiana facility run by Tim Stark, and at the age of 6 years old, suffered so much pain that she was unable to walk without limping. As a consequence she was moved down to our retirement area, Rescue Ridge. Rescue Ridge is a flatter area usually for our older animals that cannot walk on the Arkansas hills.
Declawing can and often causes pain to all animals that suffered such a fate.