It’s illegal where I live now, too. And I don’t believe it’s overdemonized in the slightest. It really is like cutting off their fingertips. There are nerve endings in there. Not to mention they’re no longer walking properly. When they declaw cats, they have to cut what amounts to the first knuckle of each toe.

I cannot say if there were actual behavioral issues caused. Like I said, this was all I knew until recently. All my cats were declawed. I will say that the cats were lazier. And of course they could not climb or grab things. I’m assuming that some frustrations were due to this. But who knows.

When I took my current cats to be fixed, I proudly announced that I wouldn’t be declawing them. The ver’s assistant looked at me with horror and disgust and told me that that was good...because it was illegal. 😸