Numerous polls have found that a large majority consider declawing cats inhumane and would never subject their own cats to the procedure. In addition, polls on declaw bans have found that a smaller majority also favours laws against declawing.
According to an About.com Cats poll:
- 66% disapproved of declawing cats.
- 16% said they’d done it before and would do it again.
- 6% said they’d done it before but would never do it again.
- 5% said that previous owners had declawed their cats, but they would never have a cat declawed.
- 4% said they’d never had a cat declawed but were thinking about doing it.
Overall, a clear majority (77%) had either always disagreed with declawing or currently disagreed with it.
Those surveyed in an About.com Veterinary Medicine poll asking whether respondents had had their cats declawed said:
- 68% No way! This is cruel and unecessary.
- 15% No problem. My cat(s) are declawed.
- 11% Okay, but only as a last resort.
- 4% Undecided.
A poll at Petsugar that asked people to vote on a proposed declawing ban generated the following results:
- 44% supported a legal ban on declawing.
- 32% were against declawing but didn’t feel that a legal ban should be implemented.
- 4% were pro-declawing but supported a ban on the practice.
- 20% were pro-declawing and against the ban.
Overall, 76% were against declawing.
A poll at Pets-n-People generated the following results:
- 66.67% consider declawing cruel and inhumane.
- 85.19% believe that there are better alternatives.
- 48.15% believe that declawing should be banned.
- 7.41% believe that declawing is a good thing.
- 7.41% had one or more of their cats declawed.
In an Orange County Register poll asking whether or not people supported a proposed ban on declawing, survey respondents said:
- 71 Yes: I think it’s a cruel, unecessary practice.
- 44 No: It should be up to owners, not lawmakers.
- 6 What’s the point? No way to police it.
- 1 Undecided
The results of a Petplace survey on a proposed declawing ban (results posted on Pictures-of-Cats) found that:
- 66% said yes to a ban.
- 29% said no.
- 5% were not sure.
A poll on The Nest regarding a potential declawing ban generated the following results:
- 75.8% favour outlawing the procedure because they consider declawing cruel and believe that a cat’s life will not be as good without its claws.
- 6.3% are pro-declawing and believed that cats could live happily indoors without claws.
- 17.9% are neutral.
See Alternatives to Declawing for humane approaches to dealing with destructive scratching.
For information on feline motivation for scratching, see Why Cats Scratch Things.
To read about studies that have found an association between declawing and biting and house soiling, see The Declawing Information Page and Declawed Cats More Likely to be Surrendered to Shelters.
For a full list of cat articles, see the main Cats page.