Almost Forty Percent of Declawed Cats Have Issues Walking

Almost Forty Percent of Declawed Cats Have Issues Walking

The Paw Project is doing some sterling work at the moment in studying the damage that the declawing operation does to cats. They've already discovered that there are many more botched operations than the rest of us ever imagined and now they have come up with this startling conclusion from a recent study that 38% of the declawed cats  have some sort of issues with the way they walk.

They also make the important point that this figure of 38% only applies to those cats that have not modified their gait completely by walking on their wrists.  In other words some domestic cats stop walking on their toes (digitigrade) which is what they're meant to be doing and walk on their wrists instead.  This avoids putting pressure on their very sore and damaged toes which as you well know are all partially amputated on the front paws (sometimes all four paws are done).

If you work out what 38% means in terms of actual numbers you have to come to the estimate that about 8,000,000 domestic cats in the USA have some sort of walking issues because they have been through the declawing operation (25% of 90m are declawed - estimated).  We don't know how many walk on their wrists.

I find it a shocking number.  I'm sure there are many cat owners who support declawing who will also find these figures surprising and disturbing.  I hope so and if they do I hope they join the campaign against declawing.