"The claws are out in Southern California over the rights of cats to keep their nails and dogs to keep their tails and ears intact.

Two years after the liberal city of West Hollywood became the first in the United States to ban the removal of claws on cats, a California veterinary group has filed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance.

The California Veterinary Medical Association also wants the Los Angeles Superior Court to declare illegal a proposed ban on tail-docking and ear-cropping in West Hollywood. ...."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...ddlyEnoughNews

It's crazy that there against de-clawing and all that...or is that just me?

I was talking about this only this morning. A friend of mine has just bought a Doberman puppy and brought it over to show me. It had these huge splints on its ears and I wandered WTF was wrong with it. She piped up that she'd just got it back from the vets where they'd cut its ears to a more acceptable shape. It's mutilation.

Cat declawing is actually amputation of bones. It's painful, unnecessary and cruel. The US is one of the few remaining countries that still allows the barbaric acts of animal mutilation. I'd like to see every state ban it.

Cutting the ears on dogs is a disgusting thing to do.

Not sure on declawing cats, as I often want to defoot ours when it shreads the back of our couch.




I am kidding about the cat part........I think.

How I agree with you it is down right cruel,I'd like to see people who declaw cat's have their finger nails pulled out, I have never had problems with cat's scratching furniture,at the moment i have 2 house cats and they use a scratching post. Cat's are very intelligent animals and after only a few times of being shown to use the post they got it. one of the cat's was a stray and about a year old when i got her, so even adult cat's can be trained in a short time.

To me, the story is just a reflection of Americans themselves. Most Americans are fixated on their physical appearance and this extends to their pets.




NC Penguin

Yup, big problem with plastic surgery on pets, which is really very creepy...especially in this day and age when people are so against animal cruelty and fur...

[QUOTE=NC Penguin]To me, the story is just a reflection of Americans themselves. Most Americans are fixated on their physical appearance and this extends to their pets.

Couldnt agree more!!! One of the many reasons Im getting out of here, with my Golden Retreiver!! Cant wait to take him to a nice country pub, heaven.
Rob

I do agree with you. Cat declawing should be illegal. We have a very active cat, but she very quickly figured out what the scratch post is for - she never attacks the sofas now. The secret is finding the right place to put the scratching-post; since cats can't talk, one has to use the old trial-and-error method.

And don't get me started on docking dogs' tails and ears. What is the point of that - other than human vanity? In any event, I think dogs look nicer with their proper tails and ears.

One would assume that people who keep pets love animals. So why on earth would they want to subject them to these barbaric mutilations?

I would strongly suggest that the reason why a 'California veterinary group has filed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance' is that they derive a substantial income from this barbaric practice.......

Would seem like the main reason....guy that use to live downstairs had a doberman, stupid dog, but rather nice, anyway, he had the ears docked when he was a puppy because the kennel said he should and that the dog will look better, but he didn't half regret it afterwards after finding out what really happens and the like...he didn't have a clue that these things have been banned in a lot of countries, or the cruelty...

My family had cats and dogs the entire time I was growing up and we had no furniture problems(although my mums last cat took a liking to her wallpaper), and I got two kittens myself back at the end of November.

I only recently found out such a thing as declawing existed. I could not believe it. We got our kittens a couple of cat trees and they scratch on them.

I've only had these babies a little while and the thought of mutilating them for the sake of my sofa makes me feel ill.

I've read it's similar to having the top part of your fingers removed. It's barbaric.

That said, I really think a lot of people are just un-educated when it comes to this practice. One of our kittens was ill when we got him and we spend a lot of time at the vets. People in the waiting room keep asking me if ours are declawed and it just seems to be standard practice to take them in to be spayed/neutered and declawed.

It is a bit sad ain't it...but the vets probably don't want to sway people because it's probably a pretty good money earner...
But what's the point of having a cat if it can't live outside...its' one thing if the cat has claw issues and is scratching itself apart, but just for the sake of furniture....

"Most Americans"?? This IS happening in California -- I'd hardly call that "most Americans"!!

~ Jenney

Interesting that the mutilation of cats and dogs raises such emotion, but the routine docking of baby boys 'tails' goes pretty much unchallenged........The American Pardiatric Association have recently (?) come out with a recommendation against it, and it is declining, but its still done more often than not.

By the way, just for the record, I'd be against declawing cats, docking of ears and tails on cats, dogs and humans!

Well, my two are going to be inside only cats. Back in the UK the cats we had at home were indoor/outdoor cats. But, we didn't have to think about rabies, racoons, coyote's and mosquito's carrying heartworm etc; not to mention the drivers in DFW and mean kids. (I met a woman in the vets with a cat she had resuced off the streets which had had wire wrapped around it's tail and it was having to have the tail amputated. The vicious buggers had burnt the poor little thing as well)

I've got a large house, lots of toys and I exercise them every night - although they have evening races anyway. I'm sure fairly soon they will have their fair share of gekkos to hunt

I doubt when I do go home I will let them be outdoor cats because they won't be ready to deal with traffic. I keep seeing dead cats at the side of the road, I don't want mine to join them. I may well build an enclosure attached to the house that they can go out in when we do go home but not here as we have heartworm in Texas and the mosquitoes carry it. Indoor cats live longer and are not exposed to as many diseases as indoor/outdoor cats.

I think before I moved here I would have agreed with you and thought it was unfair to keep a cat indoors, mainly because that is still fairly uncommon in the UK, but having read up on it a bit I feel comfortable with my decision to have cats and keep them inside.

There is an interesting article on the subject of indoor/outdoor cats here:

http://www.family-pet.com/Articles/indooroutdoor.htm