To declaw or not to declaw, that is the question — in New Jersey.
A bill has cleared one New Jersey legislative chamber that means to ban the practice of removing the claws of cats, or any other animals, or surgically severing tendons to make their claws inoperable.
Declawing is done to prevent cats from ripping up furniture or injuring people or other animals.
Bans to declawing already exist in several California cities and about 20 countries. New York tried to ban declawing last year, but failed.
Do you suppose Trump had anything to do with it; he gets blamed for practically everything else. Or maybe it was the Russians, who now are being accused of meddling with the Super Bowl outcome.
The American Veterinary Association is opposed to the law. Its 89,000 members think they are well-equipped to decide whether a cat should go through life without claws.
Among normal behavior of cats — when they’re awake — is scratching, which can be buffered indoors with a carpeted post or special pad.
Laura Goode, a cat owner in New Bergen, N.J., told the Associated Press that declawing “… is like removing the tips of their fingers. Cats use their claws as tools to stretch and to climb.”
That’s where we want to weigh in to support opposition to declawing cats. Felines in this neck of the woods would be clueless if clawless when dogs give chase. How would they escape, if not able to scurry up a convenient tree?
To bird lovers’ disdain, cats have a built-in desire to catch birds for their dinner’s main course; we have lots of birds. Claws are much to the advantage of cats as a deterrent for mice — sometimes, we think, just by the smell of their presence — and no one likes mice.
So, let’s don’t start thinking about declawing Kansas cats. They are an important part of the ecosystem, and high enough on the food chain to be helpful to humans.
Meanwhile, we should join in with New Jersey cat lovers and keep tabby’s claws as nature intended.
— Bob Johnson
