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First of all, I am very glad to read your above statement ^^ ... it's a good thing when humans don't want to intentionally hurt kittens and cats, and definitely something to be applaudedI know this is a hot topic so let me first start out with saying: I have a 4.5 month old Scottish Fold kitten who I LOVE and adore and I do not want to hurt her by any means! ...
Of the three Arguments you note in your post, two of them deal with the pain issue, which you do seem to understand after your own research and after reading what others have invaluably contributed here in this thread:
...
From my research, I've found 2 main arguments why declawing is inhumane:
Argument 1: Declawing is similar to cutting off the tips of your fingers
My thoughts: I understand how this can be understood as inhumane ...
I find it interesting because Phantom (the EXTREMELY loving cat who I spoke about prior) had very sensitive paws and I've been very surprised because the kitten I have now doesn't have sensitive paws at all. I feel that it's very possible that declawing could have caused this heightened her sensitivity to her paws being touched. I will continue to do research on this because this can show longterm pain caused pain of declawing ...
Bottom line: if you don't want to cause your kitten pain, do not declaw her.
It's as simple as that, in my view.
I don't myself use claw caps or that type of product for our cat, but I might add that if you are observing frustration and annoyance in your Scottish Fold kitten regarding claw caps, and you think that "constant annoyance" of claw caps is more inhumane than declawing, what about the frustration the cat likely feels at not being able to scratch and mark territory? That surely is a more innate urge deeply seated within a cat (the loss of which I assume would be highly frustrating) than the small annoyance of having something stuck on its claws. And this is not even talking about the "annoyance" a cat or kitten would express or act out at feeling the PAIN from the declawing surgery, whether it's the immediate pain after the declawing or long term pain, as other have described here which have often occurred. There are many things done to cats that can seem, or indeed are, inhumane. One can even find people on the planet who think that breeding genetic defects into cats, like the mutations with cartilage in Scottish Folds which they feel can lead to painful arthritis at the least, are something to speak out against as well.
You have a very young kitten on your hands, barely 5 mos old. Get ready for at least a year of kittenhood behaviors!
Have you considered putting your two scratch posts in the locations that she is actually scratching and maybe not where they currently exist (that is, if she is scratching elsewhere)? I have three scratch posts in an apartment 50 sq. ft. smaller than yours. My cat just turned two on Monday; we've had her since 11 wks old. As we got used to her, and she to us, we observed and learned her favorite pathways, her habits after eating and waking and play, and we put the posts at locations in the apartment where we saw her wanting to stretch and scratch (one thing about scratch posts, it is not ALL about the scratching and the marking up of territory -- it is also about the stretching and elongating of the cat's muscles, which one would be aware of if observing cats scratching at furniture and/ or scratch posts -- they put a lot of stretching into it!).
Cat scratch posts do need to be stable (while a cat scratches on it), but that does not have to mean that their placement in the home has to remain static. One of our three scratch posts, the tallest one, stays in the same place all of the time... but two of the three posts are occasionally mobile, meaning we've moved them around according to both the wake-up and playtime behaviors we've seen develop in our kitten over the last year and a half (e.g. if we see her stretching or wanting to mark in another area of the apartment, we move her shorter scratch posts to those areas).
The point has also been made in the thread about horizontal scratch "posts" (like cardboard scratchers). Maybe you could look into that, if your cat is scratching flat surfaces too, and not always stretching up to scratch an actual post.
I also wish to add that I'm not trying to be argumentative or trying to encourage declawing, I'm simply trying to understand.
I have a good argument: it will cause your kitten a lot less pain long term, and your pocketbook a lot less pain over the years in trying to deal with potential health, physical or behavioral issues, to purchase for your cat --along with scratch posts, etc.-- a sofa or small ottoman or a chair of her very own to scratch on. Train her to scratch the posts, the scratchers, her own piece of furniture instead of declawing her. She will be in less pain.
Besides three scratch posts, our cat also has an inexpensive chaise lounge to scratch on, something all her own which we don't care about. She doesn't scratch any other furniture.
But even if we did care about that chaise lounge, we care about her more. We could care less about the chaise lounge.
By the way, I fully agree with Willowy and AbbysMom about reputable breeders and shelters/rescues requiring that the cat or kitten not be declawed as part of their contract. I signed one of those contracts myself for our kitten, and it was actually one of the main reasons I chose that rescue/shelter, versus some others.
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