another tree hugger speaks

"bewtifulfreak" wrote in message
...
Sherry wrote:
I am not going to apologize for helping my sister get booger
declawed.
This was an unusual case of a cat that tended to swipe more than any
cat I've ever known... It will also protect the adults.

K.

"Protecting the adults." Yeah. You're doing more dancing than Michael
Jackson now. And the more you post, the more it becomes apparent you,
or your family, should never have cats at all. Twenty cats on a back
porch does not a rescuer make. You don't understand cats. You don't
seem to have much sense *or** compassion for the species at all. The
defanging remark you make was the icing on the cake. You're painting
a picture and expecting us to believe this cat is comparable to a
bobcat or something. This poor cat is, in my opinion, probably
traumatized and abused, and protecting itself.

That's what I was thinking. And again, I wouldn't let a child of that age
play with a *mellow* cat unsupervised, lest it pull its tail or fur and
the
cat lash out in pain - which is something even people do reflexively
sometimes without meaning to - so why was a cat already known to be
agressive allowed anywhere *near* enough to the child to do that? Not to
mention, as I've said before, because the owner apparently didn't bother
to
try and speak to the vet or a behaviorist about the underlying cause (at
least, nothing was said about them ever having sought alternatives to the
'easy answer' of declawing), the cat will still be aggressive, probably
even
more so, only will now likely resort to teeth instead of claws.

You seem not to understand the ramifications when you say the surgery will
not matter to a cat kept indoors; it affects the cat's ability to walk
comfortably, without muscle aches, and can often cause muscle atrophy and
skeletal problems, not to mention psychological trauma to the animal.
Your
saying this cat 'deserved' to be declawed shows an attitude of vengance
that
is inappropriate towards an animal that cannot express it's unhappiness in
any other way. If you or your sister cared enough to try and find out why
the cat had been so agitated for so long, perhaps you would have a
mellower
cat, and an unwounded child in the bargain.

In any case, declawing an agressive cat is like taking asprin for a brain
tumor; it may temporarily get rid of the headache, but does nothing to
remove the source of the problem. If my cat was acting like that, I would
do everything I could to find out why and insure that the cat be somehow
made to feel comfortable and content, so it wouldn't need to be bitchy,
and
I wouldn't need to get bitchy back, and do anything to harm it. If your
kid
was acting out, you wouldn't just chain them in their room, you would get
them some counselling, preferably family counselling together, talk to
them,
find out why they were so unhappy (at least if you were a decent parent
you
would). Just getting ****y and punishing them wouldn't improve the
situation, and it doesn't work for cats, either. They are viable,
sentient,
feeling beings just like us, and don't deserve to be treated like monsters
when they're have problems.

Ann

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http://www.angelfire.com/ca/bewtifulfreak