That said, I also don't buy the mutilation argument at face value. We literally castrated all of our male cats, and nobody bats an eye. Indeed, you seem to be frowned upon if you don't. Surely that is as mutilating to a male cat as losing a knuckle?
> That said, I also don't buy the mutilation argument at face value. We literally castrated all of our male cats, and nobody bats an eye. Indeed, you seem to be frowned upon if you don't. Surely that is as mutilating to a male cat as losing a knuckle?
At least castration has the actual benefit of aiding in population control. I don't see any benefit to declawing and in fact it endangers outdoor cats as they can't adequately protect themselves.
For the other, are there actual numbers on what that means for cats? Feels like an appeal to emotion, as much as anything else. Outdoor cats, I would presume, are far more likely to die from a car than from anything they can protect themselves from with front claws.
And again. I actually support the idea here. I just don't know if I have strong logic to stand on. I'd call it devil's advocate, but I'm not sure that is right.
Male un-neutered cats, somewhat like some of their human un-neutered counterparts, are prone to aggressive, overly sexual, and territorial behaviour (including spraying). Likely fine on on an outdoor farm cat, but probably not what you want for a pet who lives in your house.
I believe the morality laws around surgery on pets are something like “It’s ok to perform surgery on pets as long as your intent is to inflict psychological damage; so as to break their will and make the animal more domesticated, but it’s not ok if it’s purely cosmetic”.
Don’t question the laws man.
That said, I consider declawing a form of assault to the animal, taking away from it the only tools it can use and the main weapon to defend itself.
When I have adopted senior cats who are resistant to change I have just buyild scratching posts that sit beside the couch.
Just like kids and dogs, you need to not only say NO, but to also say YES to what they can do.
If you value your couch over your cats well-being you do not deserve a cat.
I'm sympathetic, in that without this many people would not want or be able to keep male cats. But I'm not sure I have a logical leg to stand on to say this is acceptable, but that declawing is not.
Sure you could argue that we don't have a right to castrate them either, but it is not equivalently detrimental to their quality of life.
Independent of whether cats are even capable of feeling regret about not having children of their own, I'd say that's not as bad as losing the equivalent of the tips of their fingers with built-in grappling-hook-switchblades.