[FEL-L] Question for all

[Bigcats10 at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/5/2006 5:42:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
GemOJungle at aol.com writes:

 
Many of the worlds most  experienced trainers (Josip Marcan, Darryl  Atkins, 
Ray Thunder  Hawk, Rick Glassy, The team at the Tiger Island  project 
)etc...as 
well  as myself Dr. Bhagavan  Antle and many  many more world wide  are 
opposed 
to the declawing of big cats. 
I  have had very close personal contact with over  400 big cats and have  
never 
had a serious scratch. I have had over 1/2  million members of  the general 
public in contact with my cats and they  never left a  mark. We have made 
more 
than 500 films, TV shows and  commercials  with our animals without incident. 
I 
have on the other hand  seen so  many bad declaws that I have lost count, so 
many cats have suffered   needlessly.
For an unfounded fear that some  inexperienced people have  of  big cats. If 
they need to be declawed to  handle them then  you have the wrong cat or are 
using the wrong technique,  declawing  is never the answer.




I diagree with your assessment of the whole picture, but we all have  
opinions and they do differ.
 
Declawing is a preference and could also be dependent on circumstances. The  
reasonings for declaw may have nothing to do with fear concerning handling as  
some sanctuary organizations don't handle animals at all. However, a  
consideration is made when bringing in a new adult animal and placing it with  
another. I have seen death to animals that were placed together when one had  claws 
and the other didn't. It doesn't always happen, but the risks are greater  
especially if you have a highly dominant animal.
 
I have large felines some that are declawed and haven't had an ounce of a  
problem and throughout the years have seen others equally sound. I  attribute 
this to an experienced Vet.
 
 
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