Posted: 2003-01-21 02:39am
I wouldn't declaw a cat. While I value my furniture, I value my pets even more, and it isn't too much trouble clipping a cat's nails once every couple of weeks. If you keep them clipped short, the cat won't do much damage to the furniture (if any). Cats do a lot less damage than a large dog would, because even if the dog is well trained and doesn't chew furniture, its claws will tear up the floor in a hurry, yet nobody suggests declawing dogs.
If I were to take a dog, that'd mean that the nice, beautiful wooden floor in my apartment would in a couple of years be a mess of deep gouges and looking fucking ugly, but that would be my choice and I wouldn't have any grounds to complain about it or blame the dog. A couple of scratching posts for cats don't cost all that much, and it helps if you have carpets that don't mind being scratched (carpets made out of strips of cloth, I don't know the proper word for them in English). Besides, if cats are taught from the start what is acceptable and what is not, they learn. Especially if there are many cats in the house, the kittens learn by following the example of the grown-up ones, so all you have to do is teach the first cats right and the rest will take care of itself.
My gf has two cats, and about the most damage they have caused is drop a couple of flower vases. They've learned by example as kittens. Our previous cat was from a shelter, but even he didn't scratch the furniture (unless he was angry and wanted to make a show of defiance). We unfortunately had to take that cat back, because it was used to roaming outside and we couldn't do that (second-floor apartment in an apartment block) and my gf was a little scared of some of its aggressive behavior (she'd never had pets before, but if we were to take that cat now, we wouldn't take it back).
If cats are declawed simply because the convenience of lazy people requires it, then those people have fucked up values. Taking a pet means also taking responsibility for it, they aren't just use-and-throw-away commodities like tissues, something far too many people seem to forget when taking one. I'm one of those people who happen to think that mutilating a pet just for the sake of convenience is wrong, and if given a choice, I will choose a cat with claws over a declawed one. The trick is that when taking a cat from a shelter, it usually pays to observe them for a while, you can learn a lot about their personalities in just a short time.
Edi
If I were to take a dog, that'd mean that the nice, beautiful wooden floor in my apartment would in a couple of years be a mess of deep gouges and looking fucking ugly, but that would be my choice and I wouldn't have any grounds to complain about it or blame the dog. A couple of scratching posts for cats don't cost all that much, and it helps if you have carpets that don't mind being scratched (carpets made out of strips of cloth, I don't know the proper word for them in English). Besides, if cats are taught from the start what is acceptable and what is not, they learn. Especially if there are many cats in the house, the kittens learn by following the example of the grown-up ones, so all you have to do is teach the first cats right and the rest will take care of itself.
My gf has two cats, and about the most damage they have caused is drop a couple of flower vases. They've learned by example as kittens. Our previous cat was from a shelter, but even he didn't scratch the furniture (unless he was angry and wanted to make a show of defiance). We unfortunately had to take that cat back, because it was used to roaming outside and we couldn't do that (second-floor apartment in an apartment block) and my gf was a little scared of some of its aggressive behavior (she'd never had pets before, but if we were to take that cat now, we wouldn't take it back).
If cats are declawed simply because the convenience of lazy people requires it, then those people have fucked up values. Taking a pet means also taking responsibility for it, they aren't just use-and-throw-away commodities like tissues, something far too many people seem to forget when taking one. I'm one of those people who happen to think that mutilating a pet just for the sake of convenience is wrong, and if given a choice, I will choose a cat with claws over a declawed one. The trick is that when taking a cat from a shelter, it usually pays to observe them for a while, you can learn a lot about their personalities in just a short time.
Edi
