What do you think of declawing cats?

I never really thought about it until tonight. We have a three month old kitten and I was trying to feed her dinner tonight and she jumped from the floor to my back and fell, so she clung to my back. I have scratch marks from both paws going all the way down my back. Oh my god it hurt like a SOB! Then when I mentioned it to my sister (its her cat) I mentioned declawing, and my sister said we couldn't. See, we adopted this cat from the S.P.C.A. and when my sister signed the contract, she signed it, stating she would never get the cat declawed. I don't understand why.:confused: So I guess a lot of people are against declawing. What does everyone else think of it?

I personally didn't like having it done to my cats, but my parents were pretty adamant against our furniture getting destroyed (which I can understand). I just find it cruel because it's a cat's form of defense.

But I didn't want to get rid of them, so I went along with it :(

If it's a housecat, I don't see anything wrong with it. The still have back claws.

Is it a solely indoor cat?? Then you may want to look into declawing. If it's going to be outside, keep the claws on for protection. And ALWAYS keep the back claws so kitty can scratch. :) Good luck!

declawing is basically the same thing as pulling off your fingernails. you're putting the cat through hell.

This cat is an indoor cat, all of our cats are. We're too afraid to let our cats outside. We're afraid they'll never come back. We can't declaw her anyway, the contract my sister signed said we wouldn't. I guess right now I'm just in pain from my back. My other cats never had this claw problem, so I never thought about it. We've had leather furniture for years and not even a scratch! Now with this cat, her claws are a big issue. Does it get easier as they get older?

I would do it only as a last resort.

See, the cat that you guys have right now is just a KITTY. Cats have really sharp claws when they're kittens, but when they get older, their claws will thicken and harden a little, so it won't be crazy sharp, but still enough to hurt you.

We had to get one of our cats declawed last year (he was four years old at the time, he's five now), because we had reached our last resort. In October of 2005, my sister gave her already-declawed cat to us (stupid! stupid!) -- we slowly introduced them to each other, but he was still VERY hostile to her. No reason why. The last straw came when they got into a nasty fight one day, and he scratched my sister's cat in the eye. We knew that right there and then that regardless, he was going to keep on hurting my sister's cat. So we got him declawed a month later and OMG... Major behavior change. He is the FRIENDLIEST cat around. Now he and my sister's cat sleep together all the time.

I do NOT advise declawing. It has to take extreme circumstances, such as what we went through last year, in order for declawing to even be a good idea. If we hadn't gotten our cat declawed, who knows what he would've done to her... Poor thing. All of our cats are indoors cats, so I'm not that worried about our cat getting hurt. Still, all the same...

(I would just like to say -- THIS WAS NOT MY IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE.)

This cat is an indoor cat, all of our cats are. We're too afraid to let our cats outside. We're afraid they'll never come back. We can't declaw her anyway, the contract my sister signed said we wouldn't. I guess right now I'm just in pain from my back. My other cats never had this claw problem, so I never thought about it. We've had leather furniture for years and not even a scratch! Now with this cat, her claws are a big issue. Does it get easier as they get older?
Well, as long as you trim the claws on a regular basis, you should not have any major problems. Cats will squirm when you trim their claws, but keep at it. They'll get used to it in time. Having shared my life with cats for more than half my life, you won't even notice their scratches after awhile. All of our cats are solely indoor cats. Mine love to scratch and kick in a playful way when you rub their tummies. But they purr too so it's worth it!! Have fun!!

This cat is an indoor cat, all of our cats are. We're too afraid to let our cats outside. We're afraid they'll never come back. We can't declaw her anyway, the contract my sister signed said we wouldn't. I guess right now I'm just in pain from my back. My other cats never had this claw problem, so I never thought about it. We've had leather furniture for years and not even a scratch! Now with this cat, her claws are a big issue. Does it get easier as they get older?
Are they going to check on you or anything? How would they know?

Are they going to check on you or anything? How would they know?
I don't think they will. We adopted our older cat at the S.P.C.A. He's 9 years old now. Not declawing them wasn't a rule back then, but now it is. I honestly don't know if they will check. *Shrug* I don't know what my sister will do. I don't think she will put her baby through that, seeing how she only scratches me :lol: My poor back, it hurts though lol. Aww well, she's cute, she's worth it. :)

I used to not think much of it, especially since my favorite cats, Servals, are well exotic to say the least and it seems "nomral" to do that. Then I looked into what the procedure entails and personally I think it's horrible and would never advise it anymore. A well-trained and taken care of cat shouldn't have problems with its claws anyway.