National Vet Clinic Chain Supports Cat Declaw
Tell Banfield That Cat Declawing is Inappropriate and Inhumane
- Posted October 2006
Banfield, The Pet Hospital (Banfield), which has over 550 veterinary clinics across the United States, mostly in PetSmart stores, plans to promote cat declawing through its new Optimum Wellness Plan for Kittens.
The proposed new plan will begin later this fall and is expected to generate more income for Banfield. Specifically, Banfield plans to capture more business by having clients sign up for a new Optimum Wellness Plan for Kittens, which consists of a series of vaccinations followed by either a surgical sterilization or declaw procedure. The new plans does not instruct veterinarians who work for Banfield to counsel their clients about the risks of cat declawing and its deleterious effects on a cat.
AVAR opposes cat declawing, or onychectomy, because it is an amputation of a portion of a cat's front toes and sometimes those of the back feet. Declawing involves putting the cat under anesthesia and then cutting through each of the 10 last joints, including skin, tendons, and nerves, thereby removing the distal phalanx (last bone) of each toe. The recovery from declawing can be painful, lengthy, and there is the potential for postoperative complications. These include infection, hemorrhage, persistent "phantom" pain, lameness, and nail regrowth, sometimes requiring additional surgery.
Because scratching is a natural behavior in cats, human caretakers should redirect this instinctive behavior by providing environmental enrichments to alter the cat's scratching behavior away form furniture. In addition to the substitution of an acceptable scratching post, the use of nail caps (Soft Paws), repellant material on target areas (Sticky Paws) and more frequent trimming of cats' nails frequently resolve the issue. Anecdotal evidence of behavior changes occurring post-onychectomy provides compelling support for the observation that declawing cats increases their likelihood of expressing litter box avoidance and aggressive biting. The studies done so far to analyze this relationship have been limited in their ability to control multiple variables and form a definitive conclusion. However, the observations of many veterinary practitioners and behaviorists give strong support for these connections.
Please write a letter to Banfield, The Pet Hospital, and tell them that promoting cat declawing is inappropriate. Tell them that they should, instead, be informing their clients about proper cat care, including how to trim a cat's nails and promoting respect for cats by suggesting that clients work with their cat's basic nature instead of mutilating them.
Write to:
Public Relations Department
Banfield, The Pet Hospital
8000 NE Tillamook
Portland, OR 97213
owp@banfield.net
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