Thursday 8 October 2009

Very disturbing ignorance about declawing

A very disturbing blog came up on a Google alert today.There was no way we could save the kitten from being declawed as he was already undergoing the operation at the vets. One of the corrupt vets who offers neuter/declaw packages no doubt, oh and not forgetting, this baby creature was to have his 'shots' and a flea dip too. Bad enough, but the writer wasn't in the least bit concerned about the pain the kitten would suffer from the amputation of his toe ends and one of the answers was particularly very ignorant,cruel and wrong:
They are NOT allowed to jump at all! and they are supposed to have special litter for a week or two. They have it at the vet. they usually wont give pain meds because if the pain med takes away the pain then the cat will jump and not know better and bust the tips open and they will get infected- I have experienced this firsthand with a cat before. It is best not to give them the pain med even if the vet does offer it.
So the cat has to come home and suffer the agony of 10 amputations with NO pain medication !
Some of the other replies:
They don't actually cut anything off. They slice the tip and remove the claw, I guess.
They guess ?? They guess wrong !
The cat I had went crazy for the first couple days after because of the pain. You also have to make sure that he doesnt lick his paws. Good Luck. Hope all goes well.
Good luck ! Hope all goes well ! Who for ? Not the kitten that's for sure.
All my cats have always had their front paws declawed- otherwise I would not have any furniture left! They dont go outside EVER so they dont NEED them anyway.
But they DO need them, has no one told you they need to exercise by digging in their claws to keep their leg, shoulder and back muscles healthy ? No ? Well why didn't you do some research before you mutilated your cats ?
From the asker to another pro declaw reply who said people give you 'shit' for declawing:
Some people have nothing better to do then bitch of stupid stuff on BG.
Stupid stuff ? Mutilating a cat is stupid stuff ? I'm speechless !
The asker justifying having it done because of her 17 month old child who she especially got this poor little kitten for:
I agree it is a little mean, but it would be meaner if I killed the cat for attacking my son and scratching him all up. Not saying the cat would do that, but if he did....
But he didn't did he, he didn't even have the chance to prove he wouldn't and now he's defenceless at the mercy of a child who will grow up thinking pets can be adapted to make soft toys for him to torment.
Another answer from someone else who thinks indoor cats don't need claws:
I have had 5 cats declawed and other than the initial time period right after the surgery they dont even know they dont have claws! It doesnt bother them one bit. as long as they are strictly indoor cats what is wrong with it?
What is wrong with it they ask ? I ask what is RIGHT with it ????
Hey at last someone sensible in reply to another answer from some one who had this cat declawed too for the 'kid's sake' :
If a cat is scratching your child, you should moniter the child with the cat, not be cruel to the cat. It's not the cat's fault you can't keep your son from pulling it's tail.
Well said !
The asker:
I love the kitty, hate the claws
Shock and horror, they obviously didn't know cats come with claws !
Hey another sensible person answered too:
If you can't protect both the cat and the child, then you shouldn't have a cat.
There follows page after page after page of pro declaw people trying to justify it and anti declaw people being called crazy,lots of lol included, oh yes it's such a laughing matter ruining a cat's life. What is with people who look upon animals as possessions to be adapted to suit them ? How could someone take a tiny kitten from his mother, planning to have him disabled at the very first opportunity? I just hope and pray that poor little soul did get the pain medication he would need and I hope and pray he has no ill effects from the mutilation.The asker is certainly one of those type of people who will turn around and call the kitten a dirty cat if he messes on the floor because his stumps are such agony he can't dig in the litter tray or if he bites the child as he uses him as a plaything.The kitten will be 'got rid of' his life ruined before it hardly began.
There is such rife ignorance and there are so many heartless people, yes some will listen and be educated to the truth but because of the ones who won't, declawing HAS to be banned.
http://www.petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=4312

6 comments:

  1. Well said Katt. Blogs like the one you've featured here are so dangerous, they are written by people not only ignorant of cats' body structure but also of their needs. To talk of withholding pain relief is nothing short of cruel and I noticed that they discussed the fact that "some" vets give pain relief, but they advised even then not giving them to the kitten. They seem to ignore completely the plight of a cat with ten amputations and no pain relief and the reason for declawing the kitten? In case it scratches the baby. So declawing takes the place of mother being vigilant and ensuring baby and cat respect each other. Sad.

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  2. Ignorance is rampant obviously, since no one bothered to educate this "mother" with the right information.

    I was screaming when I read that she was advised to hold off pain medication. I would really like the person that suggested that to have the first joint of her fingers removed without pain meds.

    A baby should never be left alone with a cat unsupervised, of course, but I have never heard of a cat, in all my 40 years of being owned by them, that injured an infant. In fact, with the proper supervision,a cat's purr is soothing for a baby, and will get them off to sleep in a heartbeat.

    Thank you for posting this blog, Katt, and I do hope that it is widely read. This whole deal is an outrage. I can only imagine what this mother will pass onto her spawn ...

    Some people don't deserve to have a cat in the first place. Those that prefer their precious furniture to their cat should get a stuffed animal to show of as a decoration.

    Brilliant piece.

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  3. I read the blog that you refer to and was absolutely horrified by it for all the reasons you mention.

    What hope have we of eradicating animal cruelty in society, when people think that inflicting cruelty on their own pets is something to laugh about?

    Since we can't trust all North American vets to explain to clients the truth about declawing, or refuse to perform the procedure, then a total ban is the only way forward.

    Michele

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  4. I saw that blog you are referrring to. What really gets me is when people mutilate their kitten(s) at a young age and then say that they haven't seen any difference in their cat. How would they know what the difference is if they never even gave the poor kitty a chance? And then they lol about it time and time again. It was so sickening that I couldn't even read the whole thing because my blood started boiling.

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  5. Very goodly put together,
    I love the role playing and the good arguments.
    I also love all your other blogs to good job =]

    ~Zach

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  6. Great post Ruth. The level of ignorance is astonishing amongst these so called caring mothers. I'd moot that they are not only unfit to have cats, but they are unfit to have children as they cannot protect or train them to behave respectfully with animals. These people don't realise that the children they rear are going to have the same lack of empathy and respect for living things that they themselves do.

    They should be ashamed.

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