against cat declawing

To the Editor:

I am a 9 3/4-year-old Girl Scout and I read your article, “Against Declawing Cats.” I completely agree with this article and think it is just cruel to declaw a cat.

I love cats and believe that to declaw a cat is a hard process for the owner and the cat because it obviously hurts the cat and the owner has to deal with abnormal behaviors. Even though cats are our pets, they still have instincts and they can’t follow them if we declaw the cats.

Imagine if you removed a dog’s sense of smell or if you removed a fish’s gills; in the dog’s case, you would be removing something very important, and in the fish’s case, you would be removing life from the poor little fish.

The process of declawing a cat is more than a regular nail clip (which is one of the alternatives); declawing a cat is taking the whole claw out.

I don’t wany any more cats to get hurt and hope that not declawing cats is turned into a law.

Willa, Girl Scout Troop 3463

To the Editor:

My name is Frankie Dogramaci. I am a 10-year-old junior Girl Scout and I think your article, “Against Declawing Cats,” makes a very good point.

Cats without their claws are defenseless. With this in mind, cats love to use scratching posts and without claws they can’t do this. Lastly, they can’t use their litter box properly because they have to dig in the litter box and when you delcaw a cat their paws hurt them for the rest of their life. And that is unncessary pain.

Getting back to the litter box, if owners declaw their cat to keep scratches off the furniture, then if the cats can’t use a litter box, then what should have been in the litter box will be on the owners’ furniture and in my opinion, little scratches on a couch versus poop and pee everywhere, little scratches wins.

In conclusion, I think declawing cats is a very bad idea and agree with the article.

Frankie Dogramaci