Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
Originally posted by: Deeko
So why is declawing inhumane, but spaying/neutering isn't? Not only are you removing a part of the animal's body, you're fundamentally altering their personality!
My girlfriend and I rescued a stray kitten a couple years back. About a month after we found her, she started going into heat. She would meow incessantly... and meow isn't even the right word, it was an absolutely disturbing noise, somewhere between a houl and a baby screaming. It didn't sound natural, whatever you want to call it. She would approach you, and as you went to pet her, turn around and present herself to you as if to say "fuck me." This went on for several weeks before we finally got her into the vet to be spayed.
So ask yourself this: would you rather be horny your entire life, but never have any release (we weren't going to breed her and she couldn't masturbate)? Or would you live without sexual feelings of any kind? It's a shitty decision, but I know I wouldn't want to be horny all the time and NEVER have the option to make it go away. That seems much crueler to me than removing the sex organs (and thus sex drive).
As far as declawing is concerned, it's completely unnecessary. It doesn't just remove the claw, that's absolutely retarded. Claws grow back, same as fingernails. I lost a toenail on my big toe when some jackass opened a sauna door into it; it grew back in a few weeks. Why would a claw be different? It isn't. In order to prevent the claw from growing back, the surgeons need to remove several tendons and ligaments to basically remove the uppermost portion of the "toe."
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Don;t believe what you hear/read.
Cat claw pic
There is a picture of what they do. As you can see they only remove the claw part. They don;t remove any of the fleshy part that some make you think they do.
Did you even look at the picture you posted? It specifically says the line of amputation severs the 3rd phalanx, ungual process, ungual crest, flexor tendon and dorsal ligaments. It is not just "the claw part."
If you want to stop a cat from clawing furniture, trim their claws regularly with a normal pair of nail clippers. Get them some alternatives; you can get corrugated cardboard scratchpads for like 2 bucks. Spray some deterrant (the apple stuff posted earlier for example) on things you want them to avoid scratching, and use a combination of positive and negative reinforcement to get them to scratch what you want them to scratch (spray them with water when they scratch the furniture, reward them with a kitty treat when they scratch their scratchpad).
It's not that hard to train an animal, but people are so damn lazy they'd rather butcher their helpless pets than spend a few hours training them on how to behave. If you're not willing to take the time to train your pet, maybe you shouldn't have one. Actually, this is a pretty good rule for children as well...