buckdoff wrote:
Back about 100 years ago, cats were declawed pretty regularly. I had two who were declawed indoor apartment cats. Why? Because they destroyed thousands of dollars of expensive furniture and my ex husband said either declaw these two or get rid of them. So, I did, I could not break them of the clawing, I tried scratching posts, pads, spraying them with water, nothing worked. Anyway, I kept them for their lifetimes, One lived until she was 19.

Actually it's a pretty recent procedure, as back then most cats were outdoor cats anyway.


I live in Australia, and my cat is strictly indoors only, as we don't want her killing endangered wildlife (and it's safer for the cat, anyway). When she was a kitten, boy, did she claw things. Guess what we did? We got her several scratching posts and trained her not to scratch the furniture. Such a hard thing to do! Not.

Declawing is a "last resort" for the lazy and the misinformed. It is an illegal practice here, as it is seen as abominably inhumane. If you can't train your cat not to scratch the furniture, then don't get a damned cat.