Cat declawing raises the hackles of shelters
Several countries have already banned the practice.
Marc Ayers, Illinois state director for the Humane Society of the United States, said the topic is currently pending in Illinois, but that there are several legislators discussing the idea of a ban.
“It’s going to get brought up,” Ayers said. “It’s more of in terms of when they’ll want to put it forward.”
There are three forms of declawing: through a guillotine clipper that slips over the entire first part of the toe, a scalpel blade and a laser. All procedures amputate the last bone of the cat’s toes.
A 2017 report in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery says the removal of the claws often leads to severe back pain and several adverse behaviors, like biting and aggression. The study also said many cats have remaining fragments from their declaw surgery.
Conrad said declawing can lead to a deterrence of the litter box, too, as the gravel can hurt their paws.
While many owners with compromised immune systems are concerned about cat scratches, Conrad said organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend against declawing because cat bites are far more dangerous and infectious to humans than scratching.
Dr. Cynthia Olsen owns Ravenswood Animal Hospital in Chicago and is a member of the Paw Project. Her current practice does not do cosmetic animal surgeries, but she said that they sometimes treat cats who have had bad declawing surgeries in the past.
“Even the most skilled surgeons can leave pieces of bone fragments in, so they didn’t get the whole part of the nail,” Olsen said. “With that, they can again be painful. We equate it to always walking on rocks.”
Michael San Filippo, a spokesperson for the American Veterinary Medical Association, said in an email that the organization believes the surgery should only be used as a last resort, but that it has concerns with legislative actions over veterinary procedures.
“Declawing is not typically a medically necessary procedure, but the veterinarian’s ability to perform it can literally be a matter of life or death for some cats,”
San Filippo said. “Cats expressing destructive scratching behavior are vulnerable to being relinquished, abandoned or euthanized.”
Based on Paw Project’s research, shelters have seen a decrease in relinquishment rates in places that have banned cat declawing. Los Angeles witnessed a 43.3% drop, Conrad said.
Veeneman said Harmony House for Cats does not allow adopters to declaw their cats, and that this is common for many animal shelters.
She said they’ve had several declawed cats brought to their shelter with severe arthritic problems and behavioral issues, such as one cat that was never adopted because it had an aversion to the litter box.
“He was this perfect cat with this perfect temperament that everybody loved. And yet, he had a good life with us, but he ended up staying with us the rest of his life because we could not ever get his litter box issues under control,” Veeneman said.
Conrad said there are several alternatives to declawing , including nail trims and scratching posts. There are also gel nail caps that can be glued on and will fall off naturally.
“It’s wrong to do surgery to prevent a natural behavior that cats do and it’s wrong to do such an invasive surgery when you think about what it really is,” Conrad said. “It’s cutting off their toe bones.”