Declawing Cats

Scratching is a cat’s most instinctive behavioral aspect. It is the one skill, other then breathing, for felines that need not to be taught (Death or Declaw, 2005). The domestication of the house cat first started over 8,000 years ago and with this came the scratching instinct. Having these as pets in your home can be a risk to your furniture, your health and the health of any children you have in the house. Cat’s claws can be razor sharp and would easily tear the flesh of a human, let alone fabric from a love seat. This is why for hundreds of years now veterinarians have been performing a surgery known by the medical term as an Onychectomy but many call it declawing.

There are many different views on the procedure and it is a very controversial subject, recently researchers on the topic have said there are three distinct ways people think. There is the first group of thinkers who think the pain is minimal and a substantial increase to the quality of life of you and your cat, next is the middle thinkers who look to alternative methods, and the third group of thinkers are people who absolutely disagree with the surgery and think it is one of the most inhumane things practiced in veterinary medicine today. When your cat reaches six months of age, it is the humane time for you to have it fixed. One feral cat can produce 57,000 offspring a year and right now the total estimation of feral cats is greater then the population of Japan (Responsibilities, 2009). There are