Hello David, I agree that not all Americans condone declawing and if I implied that then I apologise. Of course we know that not all US people are cruel, there are many thousands of USA citizens who are appalled by, and are fighting, this and I have made some good friends in America of wonderful people, who are ashamed that it is still happening in their country but because declawing is still legal and practiced in the USA then your country, and everyone who allows it to happen either because of their own convenience or because of apathy is tarred with the same brush and are guilty of a horrible cruelty to cats and we cannot comprehend why animal lovers there haven’t got on their hind legs and shouted about this, and had it banned countrywide, long before now.
You are quite wrong when you say “if the laws in the UK changes tomorrow and the headlines on all news papers there and news shows became "UK lifts ban on declawing cats", do you honestly believe that there would not be a rush of people to declaw their cats?” the reality is that most British people have never even heard of declawing. I don't know what kind of friends you have David, but whenever I explain to fellow Brits what it involves they are horrified that anyone would ever consider subjecting their cat to such a cruel amputation for their own convenience, without fail every single one is utterly disgusted, horrified and appalled that such a crippling surgery would be carried out just to save owners from actually having to train a cat to have good claw manners, this is because we know what is important in the UK, we know that a bit of furniture is of less value than a living being. We have our priorities right; we accept that cats come with claws. We view cats as the feeling, sentient beings they are. If we waited for education to change the law in the USA - we'd be waiting until the end of time. Greedy vets who offer declaw/neuter package deals etc aren't going to give up that HUGE income stream without a fight - this is evidenced by the CVMA financing the bill to stop cities creating laws to stop any kind of medical practice.
In actual fact long before U.K. legislation banned it, our vets themselves refused to perform declawing. UK Vets are repulsed by such a convenience mutilation and would not do it unless for a medical necessity for the animal’s own sake. Declawing wasn't technically made illegal in the U.K. until the Animal Welfare Act 2006 came into force and yet declawing cats was unheard of. This is why there never was, and never will be, a rush of people queuing up to get their cats declawed in the UK. There was not a single voice of opposition to the legal ban and it was not even considered newsworthy by the media here. Even if the U.K. were to lift the ban, it would still be illegal under the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals treaty of 1986. Our cats are well protected from declawing, why aren’t yours? I note that you say you vehemently oppose declawing and support legislation to ban it and I applaud you for that, but really it is no less than any animal lover would, and should, do. The biggest mystery to me is why would anyone actually choose to mutilate their cat physically?
You go on to say, “Some of you felt signing the petition would do nothing to help get the laws changed. Well, it may and it may not. I would hesitate to say that a local city or state government would take a petition signed by members of other countries seriously.”
Well David, the petition has been proved to be effective already in helping to change the law in the cities in California that have banned declawing - evidenced by The Paw Project which thanked us for our help in allowing them to take a hard copy of the petition so far to the council meetings it attended. Also our UK campaigning emails to Californian city politicians were publicly noted as having impressed the councillors.
So, while thanking you for your advice and tips, we are actually having success in making our voices heard already, it isn’t veterinary groups in the UK that need to be writing letters it is YOUR vets who should be doing something about their colleagues who see declawing as a nice little earner, and it should be YOUR fellow countrymen campaigning for a ban on declawing. We wouldn’t need to “get our UK voices heard” if you lot would get out onto the streets and campaign, lobby your councillors and government and kick apathy up the backside and fight for cat’s to have the right to whole and healthy paws. It isn’t enough to speak about the wrongs of declawing, what is needed is people to DO something about it.
Surely any right thinking individual can see that amputating the toe ends of cats is cruel, wrong and unnecessary?
