Today, the Cat Connection wraps up our month long “Love the Cat, Love the Claws” campaign. Overall, we’ve been thrilled and invigorated by the positive response, and we feel in our hearts that declawing will one day (hopefully soon) be viewed as an unfortunate chapter in veterinary medicine. Which brings us to our final piece of the month: A Message to our Veterinarians, with Love. Veterinarians and their professional organizations exist at the center of…
Scratching. When you share your life with a cat, it’s just part of the deal. But although scratching is one of the most natural feline behaviors, it is often met with frustration or fear by humans. It’s no secret that the Cat Connection is emphatically against declawing cats (for more info, see here, here and here), so whenever someone is willing to listen, we educate our friends about why cats scratch and how people can…
Declawing, or onychectomy, is the amputation of the last digit of each toe. Because a cat’s claws grow directly from bone, the bone itself must be amputated; it is not simply the removal of claws. The surgery is performed with either a scalpel or a laser on either the front or back set of paws. It is the equivalent of amputating a human’s fingers or toes at the first joint. Because cats walk on their…
Daniel “DQ” Quagliozzi is the cat behavior guru behind Go, Cat, Go – San Francisco’s leading in-home resource for cat behavior advice. With more than a decade of experience working with cats in shelters and in homes, DQ’s custom designed Action Plans save cat lives, educate frustrated cat guardians and restore peace in homes. Go, Cat, Go is all about the cat, teaching clients to see the world through their cat’s eyes to arrive at a…
Dr. Raina Weldon has the distinction of being the only veterinarian in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex on the official Does Not Declaw List of Declaw.com. The owner and sole doctor of The Cat Hospital of Dallas, Dr. Weldon kindly sat down with us to answer a few questions about her decision not to declaw cats, her experience with the surgery and what Cat People absolutely need to know about a decision that will change your…
