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My Pet World: AVMA statement promotes alternatives to declawing cats

By Steve Dale, Tribune Content Agency on

"Let's face it, a declaw surgery is an amputation," says Dr. Marcus Brown, president of the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) and a participant in the American Veterinary Medical Association House of Delegates, who helped craft the new AVMA position statement on declawing cats.

The statement is designed, "To clarify that the procedure is a major surgery that should only be performed after alternatives have been sought to prevent destructive clawing. The revised policy describes onychectomy (declawing) as an amputation and stresses the importance of client education about normal feline scratching behaviors, what the procedure involves, and alternatives to declawing."

In fact, a declaw is an irreversible elective surgical procedure. A cat's toe has three bones. In a declaw, the veterinarian amputates the final section of the last bone (which contains the growth plate and the nail -- like cutting off a finger at the knuckle).

Of course, this is unimaginably painful. And while pain relief offers some respite, and most cats recover, Brown says, "I went into veterinary medicine to do no harm."

Declaw remains controversial both within the veterinary profession and among cat owners.

Only a few decades ago, as more people began to keep cats indoors, declaw surgery was done routinely at the same time as spay/neutering. A few years back, the AAFP took a leadership role in saying declaw should not be routine. While some veterinarians have persisted in offering declaw as a matter of course, their numbers have diminished.

 

"I think many cat owners just had no idea that a declaw is an amputation, and public education has changed minds," Brown says.

While declaw has declined, progress hasn't been speedy enough for the non-profit Paw Project. The group's mission is to educate the public about the painful, crippling effects of declaw, promote animal welfare by abolishing it, and rehabilitating declawed cats.

Declaw is illegal in some countries, and the Paw Project advocates banning it in the U.S. Their efforts have led to bans in a few communities. Brown notes, however, that it's always difficult to legislate morality.

The AVMA statement points to situations where declawing may be necessary to keep cats with their families and prevent euthanasia. Cats with intact claws can inadvertently cause injury or disease in elderly people with thin skin, diabetics, and people who are immune-compromised, according to some physicians.

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