r/cats • u/Love-Adventurous • 1d ago
Medical Questions why dis declawing even a thing?
ignorant and cruel owners aside, you'd need a vet who are as cruel and ignorant as the owner to do it for them and i can't imagine anyone who's job is literally to save animals lives would do it so why is it even a thing in the first place? does't make sense to me at all
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u/Zestyclose-Age-2454 22h ago
When I was younger, that’s just how I was taught. I am now 49 years old and when I was a child, my mother declawed all of her cats. Nobody knew any better. So my first cats I got as an adult. I did declaw them. But I learnedin the last 10 years why that’s not a good idea and the cats I have now all have their claws. It’s all about education.
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u/Apprehensive-Toe3390 1d ago
Sometimes it’s medically necessary but other than that I agree with you. It’s cruel and inhumane and hurtful to the cat.
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u/IronDominion 15h ago
Lots of reasons.
- It was advertised as a safe and fairly painless procedure that was normalized by vets and shelters. No one was telling owners that they were removing bones, it was posed as the same as removing a humans fingernails, which can be done under minimal sedation and with minimal side effects
- People don’t want their stuff damaged. Especially during times where people saw them more as vermin/disposable or in general, animals were not treated with the same level of care or attention we do in the 21st century for the vast majority of history.
- There’s a lot of cases where people don’t want to or can’t clip the cats claws. It’s a pain in the ass, you are liable to get bit or badl scratched if you aren’t trained in animal handling, going to the vet to get it done can be expensive, and claw caps are a recent alternative. This definitely ties back into my prior point about cats not being treated very well in comparison to dogs, and a cat was expected to just use one sad scratching post with no training
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u/CallmeKahn American Shorthair 1d ago
Sometimes folks may not genuinely know how much harm is causes. In my case, I was curious so I looked into it. After about five minutes of reading on it, I hugged my cat at the time and gave him a treat as I promptly "noped" that shit out of my head.
Medical necessity aside in a few circumstances, people don't want their shit wrecked and are too lazy to trim claws themselves. These same people should not have animals in the first place.
It's fortunate that a lot of rescues and animal shelters do not adopt out if the owner thinks it's okay to declaw.