The world's best-known veterinarian and author believes that declawing is barbaric

This is a short note but one that must be made. I would say that the world's best-known veterinarian/author on cat health, welfare, anatomy and anything else to do with domestic cats (and dogs and other animals), is Dr. Bruce Fogle MBE, DVM, MRCVS. Nobody comes close to him as a veterinarian/author. The only veterinarians/authors that come to mind are those that wrote Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook but they wrote one book and there are four of them. Fogle has written many books on cats and dogs and other topics.

Dr Bruce Fogle. Photo in public domain. Here he is photographed in his clinic in London.

In one of his recommended books, Complete Cat Care, he has a small section on declawing. Dr. Bruce Fogle lives and works in the UK to the best of my knowledge. He is British but born in Canada (dual passports I guess). He states that "declawing cats is a cultural issue". That is certainly correct because the operation is confined to a very small part of the world i.e. North America. And in North America it is more or less, nowadays, exclusively confined to America as Canada is doing away with this barbaric operation through a gradually extending ban across the provinces.

Dr. Fogle states that when he qualified as a veterinarian he declawed cats. I think I will quote verbatim:

"Personally, I performed this operation in the first years after I graduated, but I stopped once I thought about what I was doing. I haven't declawed a cat now for over 30 years. I think it's a barbaric procedure."

I think he is being very honest when he says that. He was trained in Canada, a declawing nation. He came to Britain in 1970 to work at Regent's Park Zoo.

I remember asking my veterinarian about 15 years ago in London what he thought about American veterinarians declawing cats and he wouldn't answer the question. He knew that I had a website and he simply wanted to keep out of trouble. He kept quiet. I wanted him to speak up like Dr. Bruce Fogle to help put some pressure on American veterinarians to stop the procedure but he failed me. He was a huge disappointment to me.

RELATED: Another vet tech reduced to tears by botchy cat declawing operation

Dr. Fogle statement is interesting because he changed his mind after performing the operation for a while. He had been presumably indoctrinated to a certain extent by his training to believe it was all right but after he had carried out the procedure a number of times he saw how barbaric it was. He is speaking on the back of first-hand experience of what domestic cats go through when they've been declawed.

Vet techs have come forward with the same thoughts: barbaric.

RELATED: Vet tech spills the beans on those evil declawing veterinarians

I hope people take note of that. One last point: he also states that:

"In other countries this type of surgery is considered a mutilation, and performing it is enough to have a vet's licence to practice revoked."

Yes, if a veterinarian performed the operation in the UK, I would argue that they would lose their licence to practice veterinary medicine and they would expose themselves to being charged, tried and convicted of animal cruelty and abuse under the relevant criminal animal abuse laws of the UK.

Catasauqua - a fictional female Manx cat invented by Mark Twain in a bedtime story

In his book Letters from the Earth, Mark Twain has a section titled A Cat-Tale. It starts as follows:

"A Cat-Tale: My little girls -- Susy, aged eight, and Clara, six -- often require me to help them go to sleep, nights, by telling them original tales. They think my tales are better than paregoric, and quicker. While I talk, they make comments and ask questions, and we have a pretty good time. I thought maybe other little people might like to try one of my narcotics -- so I offer this one. -- M.T. ONCE there was a noble big cat, whose Christian name was Catasauqua --because she lived in that region -- but she did not have any surname, because she was a short-tailed cat -- being a Manx -- and did not need one. It is very just and becoming in a long-tailed cat to have a surname, but it would be very ostentatious, and even dishonorable, in a Manx. Well, Catasauqua had a beautiful family of catlings; and they were of different colors, to harmonize with their characters. Cattaraugus, the eldest, was white, and he had high impulses and a pure heart; Catiline, the youngest, was black, and he had a self-seeking nature, his motives were nearly always base, he was truculent and insincere. He was vain and foolish, and often said he would rather be what he was, and live like a bandit, yet have none above him, than be a cat-'o-nine-tails and eat with the King. He hated his harmless and unoffending little catercousins, and frequently drove them from his presence with imprecations, and at times even resorted to violence."

Mark Twain was an ailurophile - a cat lover par excellence. Photo in public domain.

It is a bedtime story to help get his daughters to sleep. The story provides us with a nice look at his writing style and his love of cats comes through. He really did love cats. He is listed in Dr. Desmond Morris' book Cat World as a cat owner and an American humorist and author. His real name was Samuel Longhorne Clemens (1835-1910). He was devoted to his cats and could not imagine life without them. Perhaps it is fair to describe his relationship with domestic cats as codependent. He also wrote:

"A house without a cat, a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered cat, may be a perfect house, perhaps, but how can it prove its title?"

He gave his cats exotic names such as Apollinaris, Zoromaster, Blatherskite and Sour Mash. He explained why: "names given them, not in an unfriendly spirit, but merely to practise the children in large and difficult styles of pronunciation, it was a very happy idea-I mean, for the children."

British Shorthair Temperament

Blue British Shorthair Cat - Photo by kitty.green66 (Flckr)

I will quote four sources for the British Shorthair temperament, Myself based on personal experience of handling (but not "owmning") British Shorthairs, The Encyclopedia Of The Cat, Legacy of the Cat and British Shorthair cat by Esther Verhoef.

I have found the Brit SH very solid, reliable and laid back. A great companion where limited space is allowed perhaps but I personally do no advocate permanent indoor living for cats. I advocate a nice bright and large enclosure and/or supervised walks.

Esther Verhoef does not have a section on British Shorthair temperament in her book. This tells us something...that there is in all honest almost no such thing as a cat breed personality because the personality of individual cats will be more pronounced than the differences in cat breeds.

Dr Fogle in The Encyclopedia Of The Cat says that this breed is, "genial and relaxed" - agreed.

And Gloria Stephens the author of Legacy of the Cat (with the photographer Tetsu) says that they are "independent yet affectionate". She says they are relaxed yet as for all cats they are curious. Male Brit SH are, she says, more friendly to people than the female (this is subject to individual characters obviously).

The Brit SH is therefore a relaxed, somewhat independent cat breed that is quiet. They have a very quiet voice, sometimes a silent voice. The mouth opens and no sound emanates! Strange and cute.

Siamese Cat Books

Here is a nice selection of Siamese cat books on Amazon.com (North American market).



Note: in my experience a lot of books on the various cat breeds are rather waffly. You might be advised to buy the best book you can afford and/or one of the books about cats generally as a book on caring for cats generally will apply to the Siamese cat of course.