The Pros and Cons of Declawing Cats

Ive got four sweet,caring ,loving cats all declawed its changed their personalities all the way around they were arrgessive,played too hard,swiped at each all the time scratched by accident somtimes too hard leading too too holes too the face arms and bodys..now they all are very gentle loving too one another..they still play just not as ruff,they seem too know there limits.I just got a 3week old kitten and as soon as hes old enuff he will as be declawed.as long as your willing too keep them saft from harm,outside,other pets they do just wonderful.

I don’t believe there are ANY pros to declawing cats. In fact, I’m doing whatever I can to ensure that it will someday be illegal here in the US as it is in many other apparently more enlightened countries.

I thing declawing cats is a bad thing. Cats could use their claws for something useful.

I can’t help but notice all of the “pros” are for the owner’s benefit, not the animal. People like to compare declawing to spay and neuter procedures but it’s not even remotely the same. Spaying and neutering is to reduce animal suffering by preventing unwanted kittens from being abandoned or euthanized; declawing is to reduce sofa damage and nothing more.

It’s also a myth that declawing will keep your cat from injuring your children and other pets - this is crap, full out. Cats that are declawed can still bite and do so far more often than cats which are not declawed because they’ve lost their first and generally less severe line of defence. Cat bites are far worse than cat scratches.

Let me tell you a story: I got my first cat when I was 7 years old, a pretty longhaired white male that my father found on the streets of Atlanta and brought home after saving him from some children who were harrassing him. He was pretty happy when we first go him home, not overly affectionate maybe but you could pet him, pick him up if need be, and play with him. He did have a tendancy to scratch the living room furniture however and my mother decided to have him declawed.

It took him weeks to recover and completely changed his personality. He became nervous, overly territorial and prone to biting. I didn’t play with him as much after that because I would get tired of being bitten, so he was unhappy and frankly so was I.

As the years passed this cat got seriously aggressive and neurotic. My brother and I were moved in with my grandmother so we could go to a better school when I was 10 and apparently Cuddles took to sleeping in my old bedroom and considered it “his”. I came home over Easter that year and the cat began literally stalking me around the house, hissing and growling every time I was in the same room, and by the second day I couldn’t hardly get away from him because he would follow me. He bit me in the living room one day so hard on the shin I had to go to the ER and get a tetanus shot and antiseptic wash.

My beautiful cat ended up being given to a friend of my father’s who had no wife or children and spent the rest of his life there, I never saw him again. I don’t think any of this would have happened if my cat had not been declawed, it damaged his mind as well as his paws. There are so many better alternatives to declawing - nail clippers, claw caps, scratching posts, etc - that there’s really no justifiable reason for doing this, and I applaud those countries that have had the sense to outlaw this procedure along with other stupid practices like tail and ear cropping in dogs.

Please don’t declaw your cats!

there are no pros to declawed cats. dont do it!!!!!!!!!

I have a couple of pros to having your cat declawed, and neither of them are regarding furniture!

One - I had an elderly persian who became unable to retract his claws. Because of this, his mobility became severely limited, and he was endangering himself by walking on carpet because he would get stuck. He also could not walk well on hard surfaces. If he had been declawed, the last leg of his life would have been much more comfortable, safe, and happy.

Two - a friend had two cats, neither of whom were declawed. Both cats suffered serious eye injuries as a result of play. The claws punctured the globe of the eye.

I have 2 new kittens, and because of these incidents, I have chosen to have them declawed. I want them to live long, safe lives.