I once had a friend who was owned by a large, beautiful Siamese cat. This friend also lived in a very luxurious home with silk wall coverings. Tia (the cat) took a liking to the walls and would run at full tilt and jump up about four feet and land on the wall with claws on all four paws fully extended, and then slowly slide down. You can imagine the mess this made of the wall. My friend decided that it was time to take Tia’s claws out. He only had the front two paws done trying to keep her from any pain??? Small difference between the pain of two paws and four, but he didn’t see it that way.

Well, Tia came home and recuperated for two weeks. Of course, my friend had to shred newspapers daily because kitty litter was a no-no on Tia’s poor feet. After three days of this chore and seeing his cat in pain, he began to rethink his idea of declawing Tia. But what was done, was done. There was no going back. When she was completely healed, the walls fixed, and my friend very proud of himself for achieving all of this with no mishaps, we watched as Tia took off running at full tilt, jumped four feet up, landed on the new silk wall and proceeded to slide down with her back paws. About halfway down she got stuck and hung upside down for as long as it took to get to the wall and remove her. She didn’t get hurt, though I can’t say the same for the new wall covering.

I guess the moral of the story is: Do not declaw your cat. Not only is it painful and medically unnecessary, but it will not eliminate your cat’s unwanted behavior. Just like a puppy or a small child, it is your responsibility to teach your pet what his or her “toys” are and what behavior is not acceptable. Also, declawing prohibits a cat from climbing. So if a declawed cat ever slipped out of the house (and they can find a way) they would not be able to climb a tree to escape a predator. That could have very fatal consequences for your cat.

Would anyone like to add more reasons why a cat owners should not declaw?