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player ready...Everyone who shares a home with a cat has wondered whether it would be a good idea to have his cat declawed.
It sounds so benign, declaw. Just remove the claws, right? Save the furniture. Avoid those occasional painful swipes.
That’s how I used to think. But my wife, the smart one in the family, set me straight. Declawing is surgery. Declawing amputates each toe at the first knuckle, taking off bone and tendon, in addition to the claws.
Declawing can result in pain, infection and lameness.
The Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) strongly advise against declawing cats.
And in many places, declawing cats is illegal, Britain and much of Europe, for instance.
The Paw Project, an anti-declawing group, states that in Israel, declawing a cat is subject to up to a year in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Here in the United States, declawing is generally a local decision. Los Angeles and San Francisco ban declawing, but none of the 50 states has a law that bans declawing cats.
That may change. There is a bill in the New York legislature that would ban cat declawing unless it is done as a medical treatment.
Like most cat lovers, I have my share of scratches. Sometimes I misbehave and my cat has to straighten me out with a this-hurts-me-more-than-it-hurts-you swipe.
We don’t have a lot of cats. My wife and I have cats one at a time. When they die, we mourn and eventually invite another cat to come live with us.
None of our cats has been declawed. It isn’t worth putting a cat through that much pain for furniture, or to avoid a disciplinary swipe.
If we had declawed our cats:
How would Rutherford have managed to grab and run off with that pork chop from the kitchen counter?
How would Nick have been able to play catch-the-string game?
How would Jack have de-moused the house?
How would Kate comb my wife’s hair?
No, God gave cats claws. Who are we to change the design?
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.
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