This is just to get the facts of Declawing out there. The REAL facts. I have seen some ludicrous nonsense posted and called "fact", that's just pathetic.
Declawing is major surgery, just because many vets do it all the time, does not make it routine. It's heavy stuff. It's ten seperate amputations (by definition of amputation).
You'll hear vets say that laser is so much better. Some will even claim it is painless. Lie, the result is the same, the pain, which according to more than one vet sends them bouncing off walls after recovery, is marginally less. Recovery a bit faster. But the end result is still a amputee, no matter which way you look at it.
Any vet that claims otherwise is in denial....ask them to be in the recovery room fvor each declaw and see for yourself the state the cats are in when they are "in recovery". Many vets only give pain meds later. Many give very little for pain, which reflects a serious lack of knowledge about how cats handle pain. Most vets "prefer" that you do not sit there to see all this. you get a completely drugged cat in a lot of pain. Then you get only one piece out of a whole picture. Cats have keener senses than humans, they suffer even more than humans. Many pain killing drugs, including aspirin, do not agree with cats and can cause illness or even death.
The place where you are supposed to get all your facts, not just those that are handy in selling a procedure that has turned into a billion-dollar industry, is your vet. You are supposed to be able to trust your vet, like we used to be able to do. Well, sad news is in many cases, that vet does not give you all the info, just placates you into doing the declaw, and does it far younger than leads one to believe it is in fact the last resort, as a package deal. It's a disgrace. Often people tell me their vet never mentioned alternatives at all. Spay & declaw has become popular with declawing vets, and they'll try make it sound as if the declaw is simply the right thing to do, without the client once even having mentioned destructive clawing.
It is really important to get all your facts, and do independant research. Get ALL the facts - abd choose your vet very carefully - your vet should match your ethics. I never use a vet that declaws - they can make their money elsewhere. And I have always found that this way, the vet's first priority is the cat and their health and happiness.
Citing relinquishment as a outcome if they cannot declaw does not carry weight when one in three declaws get handed in to shelters with behavioural issues. If one were to do something to keep an animal then you keep it after you've done it, regardless, since they made the life-altering choice, laws should prevent that owner from doing anything but lifelong ownership of that animal, and not simply making their choice someone else's problem. It should reflect the responsibility, not giving the idea that it is somehow a right.
Scientific studies have proven the following:
1. Declawed cats are more likely to bite than clawed cats.
2. Declawed cats often show complications or behavior problems.
3. There is evidence that declawing causes long-term litter box problems.
4. Declawed cats are more likely to be surrendered to shelters than clawed cats.
5. Declawing has long-term negative effects on a cat’s health and well-being. Other complications include postoperative hemorrhage, either immediate or following bandage removal is a fairly frequent occurrence, paw ischemia, lameness due to wound infection or footpad laceration, exposure necrosis of the second phalanx, and abscess associated with retention of portions of the third phalanx. Abscess due to regrowth must be treated by surgical removal of the remnant of the third phalanx and wound debridement. During amputation of the distal phalanx, the bone may shatter and cause what is called a sequestrum, which serves as a focus for infection, causing continuous drainage from the toe. This necessitates a second anesthesia and surgery. Abnormal growth of severed nerve ends can also occur, causing long-term, painful sensations in the toes. Infection will occasionally occur when all precautions have been taken.
7. In households where cats come in contact with immune-compromised individuals surgical onychectomy is an overreaction when one considers alternatives. These are people whop simply put should not own a cat since some cats bite anyway, and their saliva dissolves flesh, which is also a grave risk for them, not to mention the bacteria under their claws from litter. It just makes more sense that they have something else as a pet.
8. Enforcement of a declawing ban is difficult, costly but will result only in a short term increase in abandoned pets at local shelters before one sees a change in the type of owner and a sharp decrease in reliquishment, abandonment and euthanasia of these animals.
All the necessary information about declawing should by law be disclosed by the vet to any owner, in full and not downplayed. The unintended consequences, costs and liabilities are incalculable.
Any bond that could result in abuse, abandonment, or death is unsuitable, and such an owner should not be an owner. There are also enough studies done on animal abuse leading to human abuse to show the enormity of such a problem. Nobody who truly loves or cherishes their pet would ever abuse, abandon or euthanise their pet. It's all about caring....responsibly. Why give them unecessary procedures and cause them pain?
Quote from Dr. Nicholas Dodman, Professor at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, in his book "The Cat Who Cried For Help: Attitudes, Emotions, and the Psychology of Cats"
"The inhumanity of the procedure is clearly demonstrated by the nature of the cats' recovery from anesthesia following the surgery. Unlike routine recoveries, including recovery from neutering surgeries, which are fairly peaceful, declawing surgery results in cats bouncing off the walls of the recovery cage because of excruciating pain. Cats that are more stoic huddle in the corner of the recovery cage, immobilized in a state of helplessness, presumably by the overwhelming pain.
Declawing fits the dictionary definition of mutilation to a tee. Words such as deform, disfigure, disjoint, and dismember all apply to this surgery. Partial digital amputation is so horrible that it has been employed for torture of prisoners of war, and in veterinary medicine, the clinical procedure serves as a model of severe pain for testing the efficacy of analgesic drugs.. Even though analgesic drugs can be used postoperatively, they rarely are, and their effects are incomplete and transient anyway, so sooner or later the pain will emerge."
Some say that declawing is fine because we have done it so long. it was begun 40 odd years ago. Medically for decades a lot of things were done...spay, neuter, and amputations ...and in the meantime we have advanced out of the dark ages in each case. We have developed better techniques, and seen when the procedure is not necessary. Just like we now know there is no need to severely or abusively cane children to get them to behave, so we have advanced into knowing that just because something was done in a way for forty years, that does not mean it is necessary, or in fact a good idea at all. Ear cropping is finally beginning to get phased out, this should be treated the same.
I have heard people say they declaw because they get scratched. That has to be one that illustrates best how little they know about their pet. Cats do not attack people, most people do not realise they taught those cats to scratch by playing with them with their hands, they create that behaviour. I've had more than a few tell me their kid "plays" with the cat and results in getting scratched...again, they do not understand - the claws is a cat's warning system amongst other things, a way for the cat to say "enough" - to take that away is inhumane, more so when the child is playing rough or taunting, and the parents think it is somehow cute. Kids need to be taught to play gently and be respectful towards animals.
I have to laugh when people compare declawing with spaying and neutering. They have obviously never been at the SPCA when euthanasia is done, and I hope they never have the misfortune, it's something you can never forget, and you cannot not learn from it. Spaying and neutering early saves lives, without a doubt. Not only do they stop unwanted litters, but they stop deadly infections like pyrometra, as well as mamarry cancers that can kill your beloved kitty as young as nine years old. There is no need to breed, and your cat can only live a far longer and healthier life if more owners were responsible enough to neuter and spay. Declawing, on the other hand, has no such advantages, since one third will be surrendered or abandoned and then they face a very short future, if any at all.
Declawing takes away from their movement and defense. Running, jumping, turning, stopping. Declawed cats are deprived of normal posture, the normal use of their toes in walking and running, and satisfying their instinctive behavioral impulses to climb, exercise, and mark their territory. Cats walk and run on their toes instead of the heel to toe movement of humans. Declawing necessarily change‟s a cat‟s gait and can result in arthritis and other complication associated with postural and bone changes caused by declawing.
These statements are indeed very scientific, and very correct, as many studies show very clearly. While there are studies (one such one was done on 200 owners by Dr. Gary Landsberg - bear in mind that there are over 20 million declawed cats in the USA alone) that show there are few nasties, more show on a larger scale that there are negative results, and they cannot be ignored.
I have heard it refuted that because they cannot defend themselves adequately against attacks by other animals, declawed animals that are allowed outdoors are at increased risk of injury or death. In fact one study showed that 40% of people who own declawed cats do in fact let their cats go outside.....does that sound like someone who should own a cat?
Keep in mind that keeping cats indoors is mainly a USA thing. When one states this, one is told by someone who confuses feral with indoor/outdoor or even outdoor that those only live a few years. My neighbour nearly collapsed with laughter, and I swear I heard his 25 year old outside cat giggling too. There are so many out there who live outdoors partially or fully who lead a longer life than some indoors, but the pool quoted from is always only the USA. The world is a bit bigger than that. In many countries keeping a cat locked indoors is not good practice, and is reason for relinquishment to the SPCA. One has to just have common sense and be real about the risks where one lives. Interestingly though that so many owners of declawed cats insist on letting them roam, since they are told they can defend themselves, which is simply untrue - defending against the household dog differs from defending against a aggressive strange dog. The number of people reporting from the Landsberg study that their cat could still hunt, etc is not stated, but logic says cats can then only jump, since their grip that was done by claws, cannot be done. This restricts how far out of reach a cat can get. That lightning fast swipe to a dogs nose that can gain a few life-saving seconds is no longer a option, and no cat can get to a dog's eyes with it's hind claws. Two claws is simply not enough.
The fact of the matter is that declawing exposes cats to relatively high risks of painful adverse and long-lasting physiological effects. Complications include excruciating pain, damage to the radial nerve, hemorrhage, bone chips that prevent healing, painful re-growth of deformed claw inside of the paw which is not visible to the eye, necrosis, lameness, and chronic back and joint pain as shoulder, leg and back muscles weaken.
They would have us believe that by quoting ONE vet (yes, one) they are making recovery better by using pain medication, makes it fact. This clearly demonstrates that they do not know how cats manage pain, how they do not show it and how a non-crying cat does not equate a painfree one by any manner of means. They overlook that there are documented cases of cats never walking again. When cases are mentioned to them, they pawn it off as anecdotal, ignoring that it is empirical and a true reflection of fact. Something does not need to be part of a scientific study to be valid as fact.
One of the ones that really got to me was the claim that declawing unnecessarily increases public health and safety risks and public expenditures related thereto. The truth is that research indicates that a substantial number of declawed cats become more prone to biting as a form of defense. Cat bites are associated with higher rates of infection than are cat scratches and lead to hospitalization more often. It also shows that declawed cats are more likely to avoid the litter box. Instead of experiencing the rough surface of cat litter on their maimed paws, a substantial number of cats will urinate or defecate outside of the litter box.
Public Health Risk?? They claim declawing prevents cat scratch disease and the "spread" of Bartonella. This makes no sense since it is spread through claws AND saliva, and Bartonella lives for up to 2 years in a cat. This infection, which affects 22000 persons as stated on the website as of 2010 according to the CDC, which equates to 0.007% of the population. Since about 40% of cats carry B. henselae at some time in their lives, it makes scant sense for a immune-compromised person to own a cat. It is interesting to note that if you search for information about CSD, it states clearly you can get around the infection with good hygeine. (CDC), and nowhere does it mention that declawing the cat prevents it or it's spread, because it doesn't.
In multicat households, declawed and clawed cats do fine together, one has no need to declaw a newcomer just because the rest are declawed.
Cats have a system built on conserving water, everything they do works on that basis - when a cat catches prey, that serves as the water it gets. It also uses very little in terms of urination, and the result is a very strong urine, some of the strongest in the world. Now when one bears that in mind, no matter what one puts in a litter tray, if it is not a highly absorbent medium, the cats will get some on their paws - after a surgery, you can imagine how uncomfortable it must be, and when not done correctly and contact is made between wound and urine, how very painful it is. Nobody wants that pain, so they simply begin eliminating elsewhere. In some cases it was found that it was a rough substrate that was a problem, that cats visually were not able to walk comfortably on the substrate, and hence used other places.
Nobody can deny that surgery is a stress for a cat, and it is a well known fact with animal behaviourists ans informed owners that this often causes avoidance too.
There are alternatives. Many alternatives. Ones that bring no harm to the animal at all, no pain, no siffering, no discomfort. As over a billion people around the world know, all it takes is spending some time with your cat. That seems not fast enough a fix for many. I actually encountered a girl who said to me (sic) that she would rather spend her time with her cat playing, and not training, hence she will be declawing. Does that sound like someone who should have cats? Does that sound like someone whose vet even tried to sort that out?
People who would abandon, relinquish and euthanase are simply NOT suitable for cat ownership, which is a priviledge, and not some given right. A quick look around shelters tells you there are enough of them for everyone who wants a declawed cat, to be able to adopt just such a cat. I have found far more people who are pro declaw that would do that, then those who oppose it, and this makes me realise that we need a better type of owner owner, a higher level of care.
When a procedure like this is permitted, then found to be outdated, cruel and unecessary, is then advised against and left up to the ethics of those who gain from it financially, and nothing changes, eventually one has to legislate. This is no different. Had vets done their part and all done a full disclosure, this could have been avoided - but in chasing the almighty dollar (it's a multi-billion dollar industry, after all), has forced the legislation because of the results seen and a choice to fall in on a global line against this.
Just because one has always done it gives no valid reason to continue when it is a elective unecessary procedure with such high risks. People used to think chaining a dog outside in all weather was fine, till legislation changed as people realised this was not humane. So we progress and become better, more humane and caring owners. Domestic animals are not legally merely a possession without value any more, our conduct should reflect that.
We are human....so where's our humanity?
No comments:
Post a Comment