Why do people have their dogs dew claws removed? Is it really necessary?
Why do people have their dogs dew claws removed? Is it really necessary?
Anybody that de claws their pets, should have their own finger/toe nails pulled/extracted, without any anaesthesia or pain killers.
I would think not (necessary.) I used to work in a private veterinary clinic and occasionally, we get requests for declaw, which my clinic refuses to do.
The most common cited motivation is to preserve precious furniture, second most common cited motivation is an ultimatum giving by a spouse, a family member, landlord, or roommate, as a result of furniture destruction. The last card on the table is "my husband/wife says either Hobbes gets declawed or euthanized! You tell me, which is more inhumane?" We usually offer to euthanize for a small fee, but the owners usually leave to "think about it" and don't come back.
Dew claws are a set of extra claws that sometimes need to be removed because they are very dangly. If left on they can catch and cause bad injury. It is not the same as declawing.
Normally a vet will let you know if it needs to be done and at the same time as desex is best as the dog is under only once.
If you think your vet is recommending it to make a fast extra buck, try asking SPCA, they should give you the real deal.
Neutering decreases the chances of quite a few life threatening and relatively common illnesses, beyond that I am not sure how that affects an animal's daily life.
Declawing, on the other hand, changes the animal's posture as it stands on its paws, and in the long run, damages the animal's spine, further limiting the animal's very basic life quality.
If you must compare animal welfare to human, I have a few male acquaintances who opted for vasectomy, one of them is single and have no children. However, I don't know of any person who volunteer for and pay willingly for his or her fingertips surgically removed.
Last edited by thisdress; 06-08-2010 at 01:42 PM.
I just reread the first two posts, and realize two different things are being discussed.
Not sure about dew claws removal being necessary, I understand it's a very simple procedure if you do it at birth, but my clinic also declines to perform such operation. Seems it's still a very common thing to do in other countries, say, in NZ, but again, in the 3 years that I worked in a vet clinic, we've never performed a dew claw removal operation.
I never heard of dew claw removal being common place in NZ. Neutering of course. Unless you plan to breed for profit why would you leave your animal intact with all the associated issues (roaming, fighting, territorial instincts, mess) I really don't think there are too many neutered pets out there mourning their lost mojo!
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Last edited by Wangavegas gal; 06-08-2010 at 07:38 PM.
It's just something I've heard while I was in NZ the last few months, but I have no way to know if its accurate. I met a veterinary nurse while traveling and we talked a bit about our work, and she assumed I've seen lots of dew claws removing, as it was a fairly simple and routine part of her job.
I've never had my dogs dew claws removed. My vet has never suggested it and it's never crossed my mind until now. A colleague of mine was talking about how she had her dogs removed and that he couldn't walk for a few days. Poor thing. I wont be removing my dogs.