"Why Cats Need Claws", The Whole Cat Journal, is one the best articles written about claws, scratching, & the realities of declawing, so we had a chat with the author, Gary Loewenthal.
CELEBRATE CLAWS:
"What led up to you writing the article "Why Cats Need Claws"?"
GARY LOEWENTHAL:
"I was helping veterinarian Dr. Christianne Schelling with
http://www.declaw.com, a web site (new at the time) that lists veterinarians in the U.S. and Canada who never declaw, or who do so only rarely, under duress and after earnest attempts to talk clients out of the procedure.
The Whole Cat Journal had recently been revamped and had added a section that featured web sites, so I emailed the magazine with a short description about the declaw.com site and requested that it be mentioned in a future issue.
The reply I got back floored me: The publisher and editor-in-chief, Angela Kessler, said she liked how I had composed the email and asked if I wouldn't mind writing an article about why cats should not be declawed. I had never written a story for any publication. But I said "Yes" in an instant.
The first draft I sent her was so bad, in my opinion, that I followed up with an apology and started over from scratch. A few days later I had a version with which I was comfortable. Dr. Schelling was among several people who read and commented on interim drafts of the article; their help was invaluable. The piece ran the following month.
But let me go back further. I didn't know a thing about cats - or animals in general - until December 26, 1999, when my wife and I reluctantly agreed to foster a cat "for five days." Mike, the cat who changed everything, is still with me - my shadow, my dear friend, and my inspiration.
Soon after making Mike a permanent family member, I went online to find out information about cats. Fortunately, I found
http://www.cats.about.com, run by Franny Syufy, whose bountiful knowledge of cats is exceeded only by her unabashed affection for them, and who writes about cats with finessse, authority, and enthusiasm. She was my first cat mentor. She's also a staunch opponent of declawing.
The first time I heard about declawing I knew it was wrong. Some conclusions don't require much deliberation - they're obvious. I had seen how Mike got so much advantage from his claws, how he used them every day, how they were an integral part of his routine - of his catness. The thought of ripping them out for convenience was appalling to me.
From a quick scan of the Internet and library books, I learned that:
a) In most countries where cats are popular companions, declawing is either illegal or never done (unless medically necessary), on grounds of animal cruelty.
b) One can and should create an accommodating scratching environment in the home that kitty will enjoy using. But from what I could tell, most people who declawed their cats had not performed this necessary step. For example, they either didn't have enough scratching furniture, didn't buy or make scratching posts of sufficient quality, and/or placed the posts in locations that were inconvenient for their cats.
I also witnessed a pattern with declawing that I have since come to see with every type of animal abuse: A reliance by the offendors on unconvincing and self-protective rationalizations for the cruelty. I noticed that people who declawed their cats tended to be very defensive about it, which I interpreted as an indication that they harbored some guilt about what they had done. I decided that when discussing declawing with people who had declawed their cats, it would be more productive to try to inspire and persuade them never to do it again rather than to berate them for their past and irreversible decisions."
CLAWS:
"What about all the marketing these days about laser declaw being "better"?
GARY:
"The cats are still left without claws.
In addition:
- Some studies show that post-declawing pain is as bad or even worse when the surgery is done by laser.
- The studies don't measure more chronic, subtle discomfort that may result from years of the cat being forced to stand, walk, and run on a shortened base, and being forced to rub the litter box every day with the equivalent of knuckle stubs.
- "Better" is relative. All the pain is unnecessary, because the operation is unnecessary."
CLAWS:
"How do you manage scratching in your home & is there anything else that you would like to add?"
GARY:
"Pretty much as I prescribe in the article. Mike has a variety of upright and horizontal posts on which to scratch, including two of the el cheapo cardboard ones. When he scratches, my wife and I praise him, and that often seems to increase the vigor he puts into it and the fun he gets out of it.
You can never have too many scratching posts, only too few.
On rare occasions when Mike scratches the couch - or is on the brink of doing so - we tell him "No" in our "bad kitty" voice, and redirect him to the nearest post.
From time to time, I move the location of the cardboard scratchers, and he seems to enjoy that change of pace.
I've tried all the various techniques mentioned in the article and elsewhere for getting kitty to scratch frequently and in the right places (e.g., rubbing catnip on posts, scratching them myself, playing near the posts, etc.), and they all worked to one degree or another - each situation is unique - although by now we've settled into a comfortable and productive scratching routine."
WHY CATS NEED CLAWS:
http://www.oahs.org/pdf/WhyCatsNeedTheirClaws.pdf#search=%22%22%3AWhy%20Cats%20Need%20Claws%22%22 **Picture of Mike, an exquisite looking kitty, in his cubby hole courtesy of the Loewenthal family**