is it wrong to declaw a cat?
 

my mom found an abandoned 8 week old kittie and nursed him back to health and now she wants to give him to me, problem is i have some nice leather furniture that i know that little fucker will claw up

so i was wondering if teh karma will get me if i declaw him??

Dunno, I had my dogs nuts cut off.. so I certainely HOPE there's no karma in these things.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

karma gonna git ya!!1 :1orglaugh

Yes it's wrong, she won't be able to do cat things anymore, defend herself, climb in trees and stuff. Educate her instead so she doesn't harm your furniture.

I have a leather couch and my cat goes nowhere near it. They like carpet and cloth fabric for that.

I'm not a fan of declawing, because they cut down to the first knuckle and don't just remove the claws.

If it runs away or gets outside it has no way to defend itself without claws.

YES - don't do it

If it's an indoor cat it'll be fine, just spend the extra money and do the laser surgery, recovery is like a week or something.

heh no do it.

it's horrible, but if it's going to be an indoor cat it will be alright. My cat is not de clawed and he's an indoor cat. He pulls my carpet up (even though I've got a scratch pad) and my couch is fucked.

No matter if you 'train' them they will still scratch up your leather couch.

but again, you better hope that indoor cat doesn't somehow get outside

Declawing can lead to more problems than solutions (I'd rather have a cat scratch the couch than piss in my bed, personally). Get a few scratching posts or a cat tree and every time they try to scratch, show them where. After a few weeks they get the hang of it and will know where to scratch. Yes, you can train a cat easily.

Just be forewarned, even without claws they can still slap the shit out of you :2 cents:

I have leather and my cat has never scratched it. Like Candyflip said, my cat doesn't like the feel of leather and sticks to fabrics. He has a couple carboard scratchers that he "goes to town" on and has NEVER destroyed any furniture. We also have a 9 month old girl, and he's never scratched her. He keeps his distance.

Amputation of the last knuckle should be utilized only as a last resort. Some cats are too stupid to train. Most either know already or can learn.

please don't do it - we had a cat that never scrached anything, it's all about training. but without claws it's not a real cat anymore

well you could train it from day 1 not to fuck up your shit. if it ever does it, spray water gun at the cat and scare the fuck out of it

don't do it - I had a cat and she somethimes scratched pieces of furniture :(

the laser method is best if you want the least amount of pain possible for the cat.

It's very inhumane to declaw a cat. How would you like it if I ripped out all of your fingernails with a pair of pliers?

Get different furniture if you're afraid you can't train the cat, otherwise find the cat a better home with someone nice enough to not amputate their body parts in order to protect their material things.

It's not cruel. I have 4 cats, 2 declawed and 2 not. The ones without claws are the ones that were destroying walls,curtains,carpet,speakers, etc no matter what I did. The other two were trained not to do that and actually listen to me.

Recovery is quick (laser) and the only time I think its cruel is if you are going to put your cat outside. We have a screened enclosure outside that is connected to a doggie door for the cats to get fresh air, but still stay protected :)

i think i'll have him declawed for sure now!

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

if they are young like that they usually cope better with it than an older cat. but it is still a cruel thing to do.

however, i would gladly declaw it over having it tear up all my furniture.

we've had all ours declawed, get the laser surgery, not very painful for them and it heals quickly.