Forwarded message - please reply to FeralPlace@aol.com

Resources: When Landlords Require Cat Declawing

If any of your clients or adopters are dealing with a landlord that requires cat declawing, please pass along the resources listed below that can inspire and empower them to challenge this requirement.

In many cases landlords have no idea that the surgery actually entails painful amputation. Nor are they familiar with all the products on the market today to help humanely manage cat claws and natural scratching. The vast majority of cats can easily be redirected to do their healthy scratching on cardboard scratch pads and sisal posts, and there is Soft Paws (http://www.softpaws.com) and Sticky Tape (http://www.stickytape.com) for the stubborn, or harder to train cats.

These resources also include some of the anecdotal evidence that declawed paws can result in, or develop into, behavioral problems like litterbox avoidance, which can lead to urine smelling and soaked carpets, floors, and baseboards - a much more extensive and expensive property damage for the landlords to repair.

*** The MAPCA's Pets in Housing Program

"Declawing of cats can not be required by management. As the pet owner is fully liable for all destruction of property, management should not anticipate the possibility of damage and request this very painful procedure."
http://www.mspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=advo_Pets_in_Housing_Program

Best Friends for Life - Humane Housing for Animals & People
Published in 2001 by the Doris Day League and Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals. page 50, "Declawing of cats can not be required by management..." http://www.ddal.org/pdf/bffl.pdf

Massachusetts Animal Coalition Tips For Landlords
DO and DON'Ts for Landlords
DON'T: Require declawing of cats. This is a cruel and disfiguring procedure which often results in more severe behavior problems. Scratching is better solved with behavior modification and management techniques on the part of the cat owner.
http://www.massanimalcoalition.org/landlords.html#_DO'S_AND_DONT's

"Landlords should not require you to declaw your cat. As a renter, you are already fully liable for all destruction of property. Often, landlords don't understand that declawing is very cruel and can lead to chronic pain, neurosis, and even skin and bladder problems. Educate your landlord about declawing, pointing out that many declawed cats develop aversions to the litterbox and begin urinating and defecating outside of it. http://www.helpinganimals.com/animalsHome_gi_renting.asp

*Bryan Pease, an attorney with the Animal Protection and Rescue League in San Diego,,,. "There's no way that federal law or any other law would require cats to be declawed because it's such a cruel procedure. It's been outlawed in several jurisdictions.
http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2006/09/16/news/news2.txt

Will Declawing my Cat Reduce Damage to Household Items?
By Wisconsin Humane Society
http://www.wihumane.org/education/WisconsinHumaneSociety-Declawing.aspx

*Published 2/1/03 on CourierPostOnline.com, "Eighty percent of the cats that are surrendered that are declawed are euthanized because they have a behavioral proble." Declawed cats frequently become biters and also stop using litter boxes One or the others said William Lombardi shelter director, Gloucester County, New Jersey.

*Gloucester County Animal Shelter, says Lombardi, who’s been the director for three years and an animal control officer for 25. Cats with claws, he says, are always surrendered for human-related issues, mainly "moving and can't take the cat with us." Declawed cats, on the other hand, have behavior problems, and most who come in end up having to be euthanized. Even when Lombardi works with declawed cats and tries to place them in new homes, they often come back to the shelter for not using the litter box." "Almost all of our hotline calls are declawed cats with litter box issues," says Pat
Rock of the Oshkosh Area Humane Society in Wisconsin." "The Declaw
Dilemma", Nancy Lawson
http://www.animalsheltering.org/resource_library/magazine_articles/may_jun_2004/declaw_dilemma.pdf

*In a study published in the January, 2001 JAVMA, 33% of 39 cats that
underwent onychectomy developed "at least" one behavior problem immediately after surgery, with the most common problems being litter box problems and biting.

*Seventy percent (70%) of cats turned in to pounds and shelters for
behavioral problems are declawed. (National Survey from pounds & shelters obtained by Caddo Parrish Forgotten Felines & Friends)
http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/declaw.html

*From the Summer 2002 issue of PETA’s Animal Times: A survey by a
Delaware animal shelter showed that more than 75% of the cats turned in for avoiding their litter boxes had been declawed.

*"In my own three-year experience, 95% of calls about declawed cats related to litter box problems, while only 46% of clawed cats had such problems and most of those were older cats with physical ailments. Of my calls, only declawed cats have cost their owners security deposits, leather sofas and floorboards. And it's mostly declawed cats that have been prescribed pain killers, anti-depressants, tranquilizers and steroids. Two-thirds of my calls are
about litter box problems. In 90% of those cases, the cat is declawed, sick or old. In 7 years, only 3 people have called about a scratching-the-sofa problem"
- yet countless of "healthy" declawed cats have peed on sofas." Annie
Bruce, cat consultant & author of CAT BE GOOD, www.goodcatswearblack.com

* Anecdotal evidence of behavior changes occurring post-onychectomy provides compelling support for the observation that declawing cats increases their likelihood of expressing litter box avoidance and aggressive biting. The studies done so far to analyze this relationship have been limited in their ability to control multiple variables and form a definitive conclusion. However, the observations of many veterinary practitioners and behaviorists give strong support for these connections. AVAR's Cat Declawing Position Statement
www.avar.org

* Dr. Susan Swanson, DVM, owner of the Cat Care Clinic in Mahtomedi,
Minnesota, notes that "year after year, the declawed cats that I see in my practice have higher rates of litter box issues such as inappropriate elimination" Nearly every shelter and rescue group director in the country makes the same observation. Sore paws that don't feel like digging in the litter may be one reason why declawed cats are more prone to litter box rejection. (The accumulated stress buildup from lack of scratching may also be a contributing factor,
as stress is implicated in half of all urinary tract problems). "Why Cats Need Claws", Gary Lowenthal
http://www.oahs.org/pdf/WhyCatsNeedTheirClaws.pdf#search=%22%22%3AWhy%20Cats%20Need%20Claws%22%22

* Asthma and cystitis (inflammation of the bladder) have also been linked to the stress of declaws. Consider the possibility of post-surgery behavior problems - especially litterbox issues and aggression reports abound among cat owners and some animal behaviorists also notice a link. Karen Overall, VMD, Ph.D a specialist in veterinary medicine, has seen transient aggression and
reluctance to use the litterbox after declaw. There is also the issue of trust...Interestingly, the humane society workers have made these claims about declawed cats for years. "Declaw Details", Dr. Brenda McClelland, DVM, Cat Fancy Magazine Jan 2006 p. 44-47

* San Francisco Care and Control ("some declawed cats become more nervous biters; others are known to become even more destructive to furniture than before the operation; and many cats stop using the litterbox"), East Bay SPCA
("deprived of their primary form of defense, declawed cats become nervous, fearful, and/or aggressive, often using their only remaining defense, their teeth. Some cats stop using their litter pan. This may be associated to the discomfort of scratching in the litter after the surgery"), and Palo Alto Humane Society ("we have a no-declaw policy"). These organizations and the individuals working there are obviously highly motivated to find each cat a home and do not wish to see the cat returned. They have found that declawed cats, with a
disproportionate rate of biting and house soiling, have a relatively low adoption success rate." Dr. Jennifer Conrad, DVM, The Paw Project, http://www.pawproject.com/html/faqs.asp

* "In some cases, when declawed cats use the litterbox after surgery, their feet are so tender they associate their new pain with the box...permanently, resulting in a life-long adversion to using the litter box. Other declawed cats that can no longer mark with their claws, they mark with urine instead resulting in inappropriate elimination problems, which in many cases, results in relinquishment of the cats to shelters and ultimately euthanasia. Many of the cats surrendered to shelters are surrendered because of behavioral problems which developed after the cats were declawed. Risk factors for relinquishment of cats to an animal shelter: "Among 218 cats relinquished to a shelter, more (52.4%) declawed cats than non-declawed cats (29.1%) were reported by owners to have inappropriate elimination problems." Source: World Small Animal Veterinary Association 2001 http://maxshouse.com/facts_about_declawing.htm

"Our cat care coordinator, was becoming increasingly disturbed at the
euthanasia rate for declawed cats and decided to conduct an informal study. She discovered that more than 80% of declawed cats that were either returned or owner surrendered that year were done so because of litterbox problems or biting." http://declaw.lisaviolet.com/declawshelter.html

"Behavioral problems frequently haunt declawed cats. By far, the commonest thing we see is cats not using the litterbox. When cats have stress beyond what they can take, it often shows up as a litterbox problem and declawing makes them stress intolerant, in general, for the rest of their lives," Dr. Harrison, DVM. Dr. Harrison gets 3-12 calls a day about litter box problems in cats and, after ruling out medical problems, 90 percent of the cats with litter
box aversion are declawed cats. Declawing: Behavior Modification or
Destructive Surgery, Animal Issues, 1998

"Chronic physical ailments such as cystitis or skin disorders can be
manifestations of a declawed cat's frustration and stress."
David E. Hartnett, DVM http://www.petstation.com/declaw.html

*In a recent study published October, 2001, JAVMA by Dr. Gary J. Patronek, VMD, PhD., "declawed cats were at an increased risk of relinquishment."

For more information on declawing and humane claw management,
please see these websites written by a veterinarian:

www.declawing.com

www.de-clawing.com

www.catscratching.com

www.purrfectpost.com

www.softpaws.com

www.theanimalspirit.com/declaw.html

PAWS NEED CLAWS CAMPAIGN 2004
a non-profit, educational campaign for humane claw management
pawsneedclaws@yahoo.com

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group - Jan. 20, 2007