Declawing Pets
People often declaw their house cats to prevent them from clawing their furniture. People are now more educated as time as passed. With people being more educated, many people realize that declawing an animal causes them lots of pain. This is never necessary to do to any animal.
There are many other ways that people can save their furniture. Some examples include putting double-sided sticky tape on the furniture or spray on a chemical deterrent. Both of these are ways to persuade the cat to not sharpen their claws or mark the furniture.
Declawing Exotic Cats
People have often declawed big cats when using them in circuses, magic shows, or roadside attractions. The owners of those cats thought they were protecting themselves from the tiger, lion, or other exotic cat by removing their claws. Ill-informed private owners without veterinary training often tried to preform a declawing procedure. This led to frequently botched procedures, 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.
Declawing an animal removes not only its claws but also every toe down to the first knuckle, causing the animal significant pain. Thus making 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. Declawing big cats for handling purposes is not acceptable, and since 2006, the federal Animal Welfare Act has prohibited declawing 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.
*Published by Jackie Redfearn on 8/31/2024*