Mr Boks turned traitor on Dr Jennifer Conrad who he had supposedly supported in her battle to end declawing ! He spoke from a script,against a declawing ban in Santa Monica. He had no facts or statistics to back up his argument and thankfully, the voting council saw straight through him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np0DUXLHC_A
He said he abhors declawing yet he believes that it should not be banned because it saves cats lives and more cats would be abandoned if the owners hadn't the option.Yet when asked if the ban in West Hollywood had led to more abandoned cats, he couldn't answer the question, he stuttered and flannelled but had to confess there were no records available of how many clawed cats were abandoned, how many declawed cats were abandoned, nor the reasons why the cats were abandoned.
He tried to make out that people are eager to adopt declawed cats from Rescue Shelters, of course he had no statistics of how many were adopted out. Nor did he give the reasons why the declawed cats were in the Rescue Shelters in the first place.Surely if declawed cats were so desirable and sought after, there would be NONE needing homes.
The horrible truth is that declawed cats are often in Rescue Shelters because of behavioural problems resulting from declawing ! Why are no records kept of these cats ? How many are destroyed because they can't be adopted out ? Come to that, why are there no records kept by vets of the physical and mental problems of declawed cats ? It's all conveniently swept under the carpet !!!! Out of sight , out of mind, what the eye doesn't see and so forth. These innocent mutilated creatures are looked upon as 'cats' But they are INDIVIDUAL cats,each one a living, breathing , feeling creature, just like people are !
Mr Boks also tried to say that ear clipping of feral cats after neutering is akin to declawing.What rubbish !!! A cat doesn't need the tip of its ear, to walk, to groom, to exercise and to defend itself with ! Ear clipping is for the good of the cat, it's plain to see which cats have been neutered by that and therefore save them the trauma of another trip to the vets.
He talks about vets only declawing as a last resort ! So what about kittens being declawed ? What about people getting a kitten knowing full well they don't have to bother to teach it to use a scratching post, they can just go to a pro declaw vet and have the kittens toe ends removed, no questions asked. In fact, they can even sometimes get a neuter/declaw package or a discount coupon to encourage them to have a kitten declawed and some vets receptionists even offer declawing with neutering, without being asked about it by the client. The people who are of this mind simply wouldn't get a kitten if they couldn't have it declawed and that would be a very good thing. They don't want a cat, they want an adapted creature. Only people who truly love cats as they come, claws and all,would have cats if declawing was banned.Anyone who would only have an adapted cat is NOT a fit person to have a cat.
In our country no one goes out and brings a kitten home and goes into shock because it has claws !! No one expects those very essential claws to be taken away. No one with babies, children, frail or elderly people thinks a cat should be mutilated for their sake and especially not for the sake of replaceable furniture.
USA pro declaw vets are running scared now that more people are finding out the truth about declawing, they've got away with this cruelty long enough, it has filled up their coffers nicely.But now it's time to catch up with other countries where declawing is banned as animal abuse.
Will Mr Bok change sides AGAIN now he has been uncovered and defeated in Santa Monica ? Whoever's pocket he was in must be bitterly disappointed in him !!!!
http://www.petitionthem.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=4312
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A brilliant expose of a man who couldn't argue his way out of a paper bag. What a waste of 9 minutes, a man who hasn't a strong enough conviction either way to choose which side of the debate he agrees with but who veers back and forth as the mood takes him. What credence do his stumbling words hold? Well, apparently none because the good councillors came down on the side of rightness and compassion and voted to kick declawing in the backside. Good for them.
ReplyDeleteEgg Box the patsy of the CVMA and his greasy palms! The pro-declaw cult of denial isn't doing itself any favours hiring this indecisive, ill informed plonker to push their cause. Kattadora you outed him beautifully! Bravo!
ReplyDeleteHe is an unspeakable piece of work. This is a brilliant piece! I hope it gets spread around liberally!! THANK YOU.
ReplyDeleteThere is more at stake than can be understood from this one public hearing. Visit www.advocatesforfacts.org for more information on this issue.
ReplyDeleteKattaddorra
ReplyDeleteI have read several of your posts around the internet campfire and felt the need to respond to your pointed, but unfortunately misleading portrayal of Ed Boks' testimony in Santa Monica.
I watched that hearing in Santa Monica. I heard Boks state that he abhored declawing, but worried that a ban without a lifesaving option would probably have serious unintended consequences. Please tell me how this represents such "betrayal" as you call it? Because he didn't spank into line like you and the other good little hamsters? Why is it that so many activists on this issue seek to demonize their countrparts for presenting credible and compassionate viewpoints? Here's what I heard him say:
A. There were no hospitals in West Hollywood doing declaws in 2003 when the ban was initiated. People were already bringing their animals to other clinics for declaw. The ban was purely symbolic. Rather than spout platitudes he told the truth when asked what the relinquishment data suggested - that it was not granular enough to be conclusive.
B. He cited published and peer-reviewed data that indicated clearly that if people did not have the option to declaw many would relinquish the animal. There is nothig pleasant or comforting about that, but he did not make that up as you state - he pointed to specific data. You may disagree with the data, but it is unfair to accuse him of fabricating it from thin air.
C. When you decide to step down from your soapbox you should analyze his statement about last resort. You state that means that he supports kittens being declawed and package deals. He said nothing of the sort. What he did say was that if it meant certain death through euthanasia he preferred declaw. How horrible of him to suggest that the cat's life was more important than a declaw that would probably result in a family staying together and a statistically huge probability that the cat would have a perfectly normal and pain-free life.
As for package deals I"m trying to find the part of his speech that supported that. Oops - it's not there. In fact he decried it.
It is unfortunate that you and so many of your cronies seek to twist and torture the facts and a person's recorded testimony into an unreckognizable morass of crap. I'd like to suggest that you watch it again, only this time you should listen...
advocatesforfacts.org is Ed Boks' new lobbying site. He posted that above. All the posts against the declaw ban are by him. He is being paid by the DAX Foundation, Dave Weisman.
ReplyDeleteLess than three weeks ago he was FOR the ban. Now he is against it? He was paid to write a bunch of crap saying that a ban would cause cat to die. The alternative to declaw is not death! It's nail caps, trims, cat/owner training. I've never met a cat that I couldn't teach to use a scratchy tree. Don't let Ed Boks the snake oil salesman fool you.
Maybe you should wake up and visit a shelter some day! Cats that enter a shelter have a 70% chance of being dead in a week. I hope that you will go down and rescue the cats that get dumped there because some insensitive owner couldn't get it declawed. Don't think for a minute that it won't happen. I'd rather lose my toes than be dead
ReplyDeleteAnonymous has been very busy around the "internet campfire" trying to justify Bok's ridiculous argument and publicing Bok's new biased website. But what all of you pro declawers don't seem to get is that it SHOULD NOT BE death or declaw! Why should a family have the right to maim an animal to make it acdeptable to them or condemn a cat to death? Surely the best option would be not to have a cat? Can't you see that only in the US and Canada are people arrogant enough to think that they have the right to mutilate an animal? Can you not get it into your heads that toes belong on cats? Why do you persist in this death or declaw myth? Why don't you put your time to better use trying to educate those who care nothing for the perfect physique of cats? Sadly you will find that you are wasting your time because while the option is there to declaw cats people are going to queue up to pay the vet to burn or slice those toes off and the mind set that they have to right to bring it down to death or declaw will never be blown away.
ReplyDeleteThere is an alternative! It's an entirely new concept to you and yet 38 other countries know about it so it's no secret, here it is - LIVE WITH THE CLAWS OR DON'T GET A CAT cat's are optional claws are not.
Bok stuttered through his presentation unable to back up what he said with facts and figures, it was all based on his opinion. Thankfully the council members saw that he was struggling to justify what he was saying, took notice of the wonderful Dr Conrad and voted for sanity - to ban declawing.
Paul, I will do you the courtesy of replying to you first as you have the courage of your convictions by not hiding behind 'Anonymous'
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, I've been awake all my life to the suffering of animals in and out of Shelters.Can you please give me the link to proof of the 70% of cats being dead in a week and statistics of how many are clawed and how many are declawed ?Or do they not exist ?
You say you'd rather lose your toes than be dead, but don't forget cats toes are akin to our fingers, so you'd lose the tips of your fingers.But you'd be nursed through the pain, and cared for as disabled for the rest of your life.You wouldn't be expected to use your stumps straight away or to face the world defenceless and if you had phantom pain you would get lots of sympathy and medication and probably counselling too. None of these are options for cats,nor is suicide !I think you should go and watch a declawing operation and stay with the cat all night at the vets ,see it in pain and shock,follow it home and see how long it takes for the creature to adjust and also keep track of its whole lifetime.See if it develops behavioural problems such as soiling outside the litter tray or biting.See if it develops stress illnesses such as eczema or cystitis.See if it develops arthritis in later life.See if the declawing was a botched job and a claw grows back crooked or a splinter of bone is left behind and years later the cat is in excruciating pain and has to face another operation. We are hearing of these cases but again there are no statistics. Why not ? We heard of a cat newly declawed just last week, sent home in pain and distress,the owner frantic what to do.Had no one told her that declawing is a major operation? Of course there are no statistics of cases like this either !
It comes down to the same old chestnut, if vets adhered to the AVMA policy of declawing being a last resort,there would be no need for a ban.
Anonymous one
ReplyDeleteThank you I have already seen that link before as you have already anonymously posted it on at least one more blog.
Anonymous two
ReplyDeleteYou are possibly the same person as Anonymous one, but I will do you the courtesy of replying seperately incase you are not.
First of all I don't wish my blog to descend into a slanging match as so many do,so don't call my fellow compassionate human beings and me,
'activists' or 'good little hamsters' please and certainly don't call us 'cronies'
Definition of the word Croney:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronyism
We are as I said Compassionate Human Beings,so if you must resort to name calling you can call us CHBs. I am not and never have been an Activist, I am a peaceful animal rights campaigner,a HUGE difference in that I care about animals and their welfare but I also care about people and the environment too ! I don't go around setting lab animals free or damaging property or hurting any person ! My fellow CHBs are peaceful people too.
Mr Boks betrayed Dr Conrad, you must know that !
The data Mr Boks had, was it up to date ? Or was it the biased old data which keeps on being brought out by pro declaws ?
Where did I say Mr Boks supported kittens being declawed and package deals ? I merely said it happened !Not that he said it.
You say 'A declaw that would probably result in a family staying together and a statistically huge probability that the cat would have a perfectly normal and pain-free life'
PROBABLY result ? A statistically huge probability ? Those statistics again, where are they ? What about the declawed cats which develop behavioural problems from the declawing ? They don't stay with the family ! What about the cats which don't have a perfectly normal and pain free life after declawing ? They are 'cats' but each animal is ONE individual cat, feeling pain and fear just as we people do ! Even one cat in pain or fear is one too many !
'An unreckognizable morass of crap'
Do you have to resort to gutter language ? Please if you have anything else to say, even if you want to hide behind 'Anonymous' try to be civil about it.
BTW if Mr Boks was SO right, how come he failed to stop a ban ?
As Babz above said, it doesn't have to be death or declaw, it's not compulsory to have a cat, anyone who doesn't like it that cats have claws or can't be bothered to train a cat to scratch on an appropriate scratching post,is not a fit person to have a cat anyway !
I recently signed the petition. I absolutely love your blog and that you are getting the word across about the cruelties of declawing. I worked with a cat who was declawed, I noticed his paws were very sensitive and he would always try to pull on wood, etc. This cat is a russian blue cat & he is a sweetheart!
ReplyDeleteFeel free to write to me anytime!
Best,
Vanessa