[FEL-L] Question for all

[Laura Morin]

The claws generallly aren't the lethal part of a cat during an attack. 
Is there a report of all the lethal attacks that have occured, to know if the cats were declawed or not.
Of course it does take away a weapon and holding power, so it may make them a bit 'safer' and easier to deal with. but...

Laura Morin
lmorin67 at earthlink.net
www.WildAboutCats.org
Exotic Feline Conservation-Education-Rescue 



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Lynn Culver 
To: felines-l at catbox.com
Sent: 8/5/2006 5:47:05 AM 
Subject: Re: [FEL-L] Question for all


Well....

In discussing things with someone else, we got onto talk about big cats and thence onto the subject of declawing big cats. What are your opinions on that? I said I wouldn't do it but couldn't really come up with any reasons why not that were convincing enough for him. He was saying that it eliminated one lethal handling problem. Mind voicing what you all think? Just curious.

Tim Fuller

Its a very emotional subject. And if you ever actually have care for a cat that has developed osteoarthritis from the surgery, it will have a profound effect upon your opinions of this surgery.

I have cared for many cougars for the past 21 years, and all but one showed no symptoms of pain or complications from the surgery. The one cougar that did, Sharu was operated on properly - it was not a case of some botched operation. He was genetically pre-disposed to develop osteoarthritis, and years of carrying an extra 10 to 15 pounds added to the pressure on his surgically altered feet.

Our last two cougars have not been decalwed. We do not go in with them now that they are full adults. Just a precautionary decision, based partially upon the fact that they have the potential to inflict serious damage with those claws (though both felines are very sweet)

It is also more challenging to confine these two cougars behind fences and we have had to take extra precautions to do so successfully. Your liability exposure is defiantely higher.

Claws or no claws - there are trade-offfs with both decisions.

One word of advice - maintain a strict weight control program for any declawed cat to reduce the pressure upon the feet. These cats are too proud to be crippled and it is one of the saddest things you will ever have to deal with. 

Lynn Culver
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.breuckman.com/pipermail/felines-l/attachments/20060805/9eafb995/attachment.html