Mar 09, 2025 To Declaw or Not To Declaw?
Declawing pet cats, or onychectomy, is a surgical procedure performed under general anesthesia that permanently removes a cat’s claws. This procedure entails amputating the last bone in each toe and is analogous to removing the last joint of a human finger. The procedure is reported to cause significant pain (although it can be difficult to detect pain in cats) and adverse changes in cat behavior.
Background
As reported in a June 13, 2024 Wall Street Journal article, the invention of kitty litter in 1947 indirectly encouraged the practice of declawing cats. Kitty litter allowed cat owners to keep pet cats inside homes and apartments. As more cats began living indoors, their natural scratching behaviors became an issue.
In a letter to the editor of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in November 1952, Dr. Grant Misener, a Chicago veterinary practitioner, suggested that the problem of cats scratching and damaging furniture could be resolved through surgical declawing. As declawing became more widespread in the 1970s, concerns were raised about this procedure’s short-term and long-term effects on the well-being of cats and the perceived increase in problem behaviors.
In 2001, veterinary epidemiologist Dr. Gary Patronek reviewed the available claims regarding the impact of declaw surgery in veterinary academic publications. He commented that:
“[I]t seems unthinkable that an elective surgery performed on a quarter of owned cats could lack definitive evaluation, but that is the case. The most that can be said about adverse behavioral sequelae to onychectomy is that they remain as hard to dismiss as they are to quantify. Until more definitive data become available, practitioners will have no choice but to continue dodging opposing claims and balancing potential harms and benefits, using their own ethics and clinical impressions as the yardstick.”
Since Dr. Patronek conducted his review in 2001, additional studies have been undertaken on declaw surgery’s postoperative outcomes. These studies have tended to disprove claims by both sides of the debate. For example, it does not appear that cats with intact claws are more likely to end up in shelters and be euthanized, as some veterinarians argue. Conversely, declawed cats do not appear to be more likely to bite or display other problem behaviors.
Further Developments
Surveys suggest that approximately 25% of the estimated 70 to 90 million pet cats in the United States may be declawed. However, opposition to the declawing of cats has been steadily increasing. Critics label this practice as a barbaric act of mutilation and torture. Veterinary anesthesiologist and animal behaviorist Dr. Nicholas Dodman has stated that “partial digital amputation is so horrible that it has been used for the torture of prisoners of war.” He also emphasizes that cats experience significant pain following the procedure.
Opponents of declawing argue that declawed cats are more likely to bite and experience litterbox issues, but the evidence supporting these claims is also not particularly strong. As noted by Dr. Patronek in 2001, one might expect to see much more precise indicators of adverse outcomes within the pet cat population than is currently evident.
The veterinary community is divided over the procedure. Although the American Veterinary Medical Association consistently opposes efforts to legislate a ban on declawing, its current policy under review on ‘Declawing domestic cats’ clearly reflects the concern and tension around this issue.
The other major American veterinary organization, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), released a statement in 2021 stating that it is unequivocally opposed to declawing. However, critics argue that some AAHA-accredited veterinary clinics still perform declaw surgeries.
Efforts in the USA to ban declawing through legislation are slowly gaining momentum. West Hollywood became the first U.S. community to pass an ordinance prohibiting declaw surgeries in 2003. The California Veterinary Medical Association initially successfully challenged this ordinance in court, but ultimately, the ordinance was upheld after an appeal to a higher court. Other communities in California have also enacted bans on declaw surgery. New York was the first U.S. state to ban declawing in 2019, followed by Maryland in 2022.
The June 13, 2024, article in the Wall Street Journal discussing declawing implied that some veterinarians might oppose declawing bans due partly to financial concerns. Assuming there are approximately 84 million pet cats in the United States—estimates of U.S. pet populations vary—and that the average lifespan of a cat is 12 years, we can calculate the relative importance of declaw surgery income. Based on these estimates, around 8 million new “replacement” cats will be needed each year to account for those that have passed away and to increase the overall cat population by approximately 1 million annually (because of increases in the number of US households).
If one-quarter of the 8 million replacement cats undergo declaw surgery at some point and the average fee for declaw surgery is around $1,000, these surgeries would generate approximately $2 billion annually in veterinary income—double the estimate in the Wall Street Journal. Expenditures on veterinary care are around $40 billion annually. Therefore, declaw surgeries may account for approximately 5% of national veterinary income. This is a significant proportion, but if declaw surgeries are replaced by alternative treatments (see below), then veterinary clinics may replace one income stream with another.
Veterinary and general public opposition to declaw surgery is growing. Such surgeries have been banned in most European countries, including Australia, Brazil, and New Zealand. Veterinary associations worldwide increasingly oppose surgery, while cat lovers have pushed for bans on procedures for over two decades. Alternative solutions are becoming available. Dr. Tony Wexler, an American veterinarian, invented Soft Paws, a vinyl cover over the nail that does not interfere with a cat’s movement but prevents destructive scratching and brought it to market in 1990. Soft Paws’ covers need to be replaced regularly, but many users have been sufficiently pleased with the results and have posted enthusiastic testimonials online.
The differing opinions within the veterinary profession regarding cat declaw surgeries stem partly from the absence of definitive studies evaluating this common procedure’s outcomes. The rise of large corporate veterinary practices, such as Banfield, VCA, and Blue Pearl, which encompass hundreds or even thousands of clinics under a single corporation, presents an opportunity to track the outcomes of standard veterinary practices efficiently. This could help improve these practices to support animal welfare better. Notably, all three of these corporate practices ceased performing declaw surgeries in 2020 as a matter of corporate policy.
Additionally, the Vet Compass initiative the Royal Veterinary College promoted is an alternative. It connects individual veterinary practices into a unified diagnostic system, allowing for the tracking of standard clinical treatments and their outcomes. These new corporate entities and integrated computer systems have the potential to revolutionize veterinary epidemiology. The veterinary profession needs these innovative approaches to enhance epidemiological data gathering and support decision-making in animal welfare.
Video credit: Oleg Doroshin, AdobeStock