[FEL-L] "gettin nasty with humans applying human anatomy to an animal instead of animal anatomy to an animal"

[Brian Werner]

List,

I am sorry that I am so mean. I seldom post here but this is one sore 
subject, literally sore to more than one of my own big cats here at 
Tiger Creek. You can learn more about me on Animal Planet today at 3:00 
pm easter time in Growing Up Tiger. See 
http://www.tigercreek.org/animalplanet.html for more info.

To me it is nasty to declaw a BIG cat. I strongly believe it is immoral, 
unethical, neglectful and inflicted abuse. It has no role in 
conservation or education. It is only performed by inexperienced 
handlers or even worse in some cases those who claim to be handlers only 
never working with the big cats directly.

If you'll research my posts you will see that I pointed to the facts, 
truths or experiences including many others that work with big cats that 
have claws. If I and a handful of others do not speak out against this 
old human practice then who will? Am I coming across strong (or mean)? 
Yes most definitely so but I do so out of compassion to try and save any 
additional big cats from having to experience the agony of having its 
extensions amputated.

Big cats have a lot of weight that bares down on the paws. You can tell 
from a distance that a big cat is declawed by the way it walks, the 
pressure points are pushed to the limits causing them to actually change 
the way in which they set down the paw in each step. It throws the 
entire natural alignments of the animals posture off. Often in old age 
when cast to some sanctuary the cats are suffering from severe arthritis 
and in some of the most extreme cases these big cats claws actually grow 
back through the paw in a deformed shape that pokes through the paw at 
the top or sides (a path of least resistance). It (the practice of 
declaw) always starts with cubs that scratch while drinking a bottle, if 
they trimmed the claws points with nail snips at the very end of the 
points they would save themselves from having to take this any farther.

I see pet owners do this declaw as well as those who have big cats in 
acts of movie work but only by those whom seem to either be taught by 
the old timers such as Jan or are more recently "getting into the 
business". In one case I even seen a leopard that had its canines pulled 
out to prevent her from biting as well as being declawed. The 
experienced and best of the best handlers do not practice this method of 
declaw, they have the experience and knowledge to know what it does and 
that it is senseless. These are all guys that I know who have full 
direct contact every day and they do more with their cats then these 
stardom magic acts or modeling shoots would dare dream of.

The bottom line is that declawing a big cat is useless, cruel and 
doesn't even protect people intended to protect, which by itself is a 
selfish reason or act in itself to try and justify this activity. The 
non-profit magazine that I receive this month talks about the GI 
generation (1901 - 1927) being the most giving generation of all times, 
it then goes on to talk about the generation (1928  1944) being less 
giving than any other generation calling them the ME generation and then 
it states that the baby bommers are even worse at this mentality. My 
point? Is declawing about the ME syndrome or is it about the big cats? 
It is all about the ME in all of those people who practice this. It is a 
self serving application that doesn't even work as intended. It doesn't 
make the big cat safer, it doesn't even better protect the model, and 
who gives a damn about a costume? And in the end the big cats suffer 
from this practice. The claw of a cat is not like our own finger nails, 
you cant remove it in the same manner without causing irreversible 
damages. This is equal to removing all of your toes and then expecting 
you to walk correct with a standard posture. People need to understand 
that if they want to work with animals than they need to do just that, 
work with them, not against them. This practice of declawing originated 
by humans applying human anatomy to an animal instead of animal anatomy 
to an animal. It originated by applying human needs to an animal instead 
of applying animal needs to an animal.

In the service of the big cats,
Brian Werner