The Pros and Cons of Declawing your Family Feline
Declawing is a very controversial issue among cat owners and cat lovers. There are those that believe that declawing a cat is wrong under any circumstances. The opponents of declawing believe that there is always another option that can be chosen. On the other hand, there are many people who believe that declawing is harmless. That it does not harm the cat. It is important for people who are neutral about the subject to know both sides of the argument before making a decision in either direction.
When you declaw your cat you leave him defenseless against any attacks that might occur. Of course you first say that your cat will never need to defend himself because he will always be indoors. While this is a very good argument, you can’t guarantee that your cat will spend every single hour of the rest of his life indoors. No matter how small of a chance it may be, there is a slight chance that your cat could get into some situation where he will need to defend himself. If you have removed his claws, he will be left without a way to defend himself in the rare occasion that he needs to.
Of course, since you have just removed your cat’s primary defense mechanism, it is now your responsibility to make sure that he remains in a safe environment at all times. No matter what else you have to do, you must think about your cat. Even when you don’t have the time, you still have to make sure your cat is in a safe environment.
Some people believe that declawing the cat causes him to become unbalanced. These people say they have noticed that cats continue to have trouble walking and balancing after they have been declawed. This is another disadvantage for the cat.
Not only does the cat’s walking become unbalanced, you might notice that his behavior also changes. Scratching isn’t just something that cat’s do because they want to hurt your furniture. It’s actually a part of the cat’s livelihood. They scratch when they are bored and also to amuse themselves. When you take away your cat’s ability to amuse himself, you might notice that your cat doesn’t have the spunk that he used to. It might seem that your cat is gloomy and bored much of the time. Why wouldn’t he be? Declawing takes away one of the cat’s favorite things to do.
There are also some very good reasons to declaw your cat. There reason that most people declaw their cats is to stop the cat from scratching up furniture. Cats are notorious for scratching furniture. Ironically, it always seems to be the furniture you value the most that the cat chooses for a scratching post. For many people, declawing the cat is easier than going through the motions to curb the cat’s clawing.
When there are small children in the home, declawing might be the only option to protecting the children from getting scratched by the cat. Cats don’t intentionally hurt children by scratching them. There could be a situation where a child is playing with the cat in a way that makes the cat feel attacked. Since cats naturally scratch to defend themselves, a child could end up getting hurt an in innocent situation. To prevent this from happening, declawing your cat might be a good idea.
In some situations, the owners of a cat might try everything imaginable to get the cat to stop clawing. Despite even the best of efforts, it might just be impossible to encourage a cat to stop clawing inappropriately. When this kind of situation occurs, the owners are left with two choices: either declaw the cat or give him away. It’s an unfortunate situation, but even with the negative implications of declawing, it might be a better option than giving the cat away. When you are forced to choose between these two options, declawing is usually the better one.
For some people, the decision to declaw or not to declaw is an easy one. Perhaps, their minds have already been made up about which decision is the best one. There are others who do not have a clear decision either way. In either case, it is good to know both sides of the argument to make a decision for your family and its feline member.