"A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes...".

Many pro-declawers and veterinarians use the argument that cats walk on their paw pads so they do not need the last digit of their fingers and toes for walking. Please use the definitions of DIGITIGRADE below to shine the light on this mistruth. Cats walk on their toes like Balet Dancers, imagine walking on your "tip toes" without the last digit!
You can clearly see in the above photo how the paw pad breaks down after years of being forced to walk on fingers robbed of their last digit. The paw pads in the clawed toes are plump, pink, and healthy - the way they should be! Pads are for cushioning, not walking! It's not hard to imagine what the physical impact this unnatural walking has on the entire cats skeletal system & balance over the course of the cats life. Let's keep fighting for cat claws and being a voice for the voiceless!

DEFINITIONS OF DIGITIGRADE:

"A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes. Digitigrades include walking birds (what many assume to be bird knees are actually ankles), cats, dogs, and most other mammals, but not humans, bears, and a few others (cf. plantigrade, unguligrade). They are generally quicker and move more quietly than other mammals". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitigrade

"dig·i·ti·grade: walking or adapted for walking on the digits with the posterior of the foot more or less raised <cats and dogs are digitigrade mammals>—compare plantigrad"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/digitigrade

"Relating to an animal, such as a horse, cat, or dog, whose weight is borne on the toes." http://www.answers.com/topic/digitigrade

"Digitigrade locomotion
Digitigrade locomotion is the sort of walking cats, dogs, and most other mammals engage in, excepting humans, bears, and a few others. While humans usually walk with the soles of their feet on the ground (plantigrade locomotion), digitigrade animals walk on the tips of their toes, or, in more precise terms, their distal phalanges and middle phalanges. Digitigrade locomotion is responsible for the distictive hook shape of dog legs, for there are anatomical differences between a plantigrade and digitigrade limb. Digitigrade animals have relatively long carpals and tarsals, and the bones which would correspond to the human ankle are thus set much higher in the limb than in a human. This effectively lengthens the foot, so much so that a digitigrade animal's "hands" and "feet" are often thought to correspond only to what would be the bones of the human toe or finger. Because so little surface area needs to get off the ground, and also because of the added length of the foot, digitigrade locomotion tends to be swift.
Some furries claim that walking on tip-toe, the human version of digitigrade locomotion, feels more natural to them than resting their whole foot on the ground."
http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Digitigrade-locomotion

"Unlike most mammals who walk on the soles of the paws or feet, cats are digitigrade, which means they walk on their toes. Their back, shoulder, paw and leg joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves are naturally designed to support and distribute the cat's weight across its toes as it walks, runs and climbs."
http://maxshouse.com/facts_about_declawing.htm