Big Cats Suffer Too...
Sadly, large cats such as lions, tigers, and cougars also
suffer from the mutilation that is declawing. The effects of this procedure are
actually usually far worse in large, wild cats. Many of these effects are
long-term and include constant pain, reoccurring bleeding, lameness, arthritis,
aggressiveness and nail regrowth. The reasons for declawing a big cat is mainly
to make them safer to work with. Many big cats that are declawed in sanctuaries
around the country are from performance acts or circuses. It is cruel to take
away a cats claws, even if it is for a safety reason. If the animal isn't
"safe" to work with then it probably should be left in the wild where
it belongs. All of this is societies fault. Humans take these gorgeous wild
beasts and try to tame them, and when they can't,
they maim them instead. It is a tragic and highly unnecessary result of
humanities stupidity. One woman, Jennifer Conrad, is trying to fix what society
has crippled; the poor forgotten cats left to die in sanctuaries around the
United States. She is an exotic animal Veterinarian who has discovered a
procedure to help these unfortunate animals. She realized how damaged these
cats were, having to walk on their heels and even their elbows because their
toes hurt so much. By reattaching the tendons in their paws, Conrad was able to
restore some of the normal function of their paws, giving them the comfort to
walk, play, and stretch. "Conrad has now performed around 225
tendon-repair surgeries on 76 lions, tigers, panthers and other declawed
exotics.", says Alan Prendergast,
who wrote an article about Conrad’s surgery. Although there aren't such simple
alternatives to declawing a large cat, it is still an inhumane procedure that
should not be done. If a person decides to own a tiger, lion, panther, cougar,
etc., they should take responsibility and remember they are wild animals. A
wild cat can't be tamed by maiming.