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Just got this from Jennifer Conrad in an email. She quotes Dr. Nicholas Dodman, Professor of Behavioral Pharmacology and Director of the Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and internationally known specialist in domestic animal behavioral research, explains declawing:

“The inhumanity of the procedure is clearly demonstrated by the nature of cats’ recovery from anesthesia following the surgery. Unlike routine recoveries, including recovery from neutering surgeries, which are fairly peaceful, declawing surgery results in cats bouncing off the walls of the recovery cage because of excruciating pain. Cats that are more stoic huddle in the corner of the recovery cage, immobilized in a state of helplessness, presumably by overwhelming pain. Declawing fits the dictionary definition of mutilation to a tee. Words such as deform, disfigure, disjoint, and dismember all apply to this surgery. Partial digital amputation is so horrible that it has been employed for torture of prisoners of war, and in veterinary medicine, the clinical procedure serves as model of severe pain for testing the efficacy of analgesic drugs. Even though analgesic drugs can be used postoperatively, they rarely are, and their effects are incomplete and transient anyway, so sooner or later the pain will emerge.”

What can we say? We hope that someone reads this and we hope that it stops a person from asking a veterinarian to mutilate her cat. We hope that this person understands what she is about to do. We hope that this person sees sense. We hope that this person does not just listen to her veterinarian when he or she misrepresents this horrifying operation to her.

You could not get a better quote from a better person. This is why I am publishing it here, on this website, verbatim. People who want to declaw their cat should read the quote at least twice, sit down, digest it fully, read this article as well, rethink what they’re doing and then finally they may change their mind. They should. And if and when they change their mind about this horrific veterinary operation they should then preach what they have learned to others. As many people as possible.

