The Paw Project (2013)

It's absolutely heartbreaking to see what has been happening to these poor cats (this includes domestic cats, lions, and tigers). As we all know, some humans can be pretty unfeeling and barbaric all in the name of the almighty dollar. Well, boys and girls, I'm happy to report that the money train is rolling toward its final stop thanks to the lovingly heroic efforts of the wonderful folks who produced this most enlightening documentary. Wow, I never knew declawing was so crippling. I have a feeling YOU never knew this either. If you love cats--or even if you don't but would never want to see any animal suffer--please see THE PAW PROJECT.

I've had kitties all my life. We never declawed them. This was not really a family policy in as much as I think it never really occurred to us and it was never really a problem with the kitties we had.Kitties like to claw. This is not a behavioral problem. It's just a natural behavior of cats. As an adult I've had cats who have decimated my sofas and I definitely was unhappy about this, but I still felt even without having researched this that declawing was never an option no matter what. it just seemed barbaric.This documentary was extremely informative and heartbreaking. I learned a lot about the reality of declawing and what it really means for the animal. The images of the big cats having difficulty walking is like a knife in the heart. It was a beautiful act of incredible kindness and empathy that this vet performed surgery on all of these animals to restore their sense of well being and dignity. Through the legal hearings and proceedings you hear both arguments; some say that declawing cats spares them from the shelter (death) and others say that declawing CAUSES them to end up in the shelter due to behavior problems (litter box aversion due to painful paws) and also biting. Perhaps as some have pointed out that the story is one sided. I've yet to see a documentary that presents both sides equally. Be that as it may; though both arguments make sense the bottom line is that the procedure is unnecessary and painful. If you're going to have an animal in your home you have to understand what that means and shouldn't surgically alter it to fit your needs.I do hope this procedure becomes illegal in the U.S. and though plenty of people might be at risk of having torn up furniture they would be forced to find kinder alternatives to protecting an inanimate object.

I watched this documentary out of curiosity as to what they had to say about De-clawing but I already had an idea of which side the film was on. The documentary had an agenda of stopping de-clawing and focused on all the horrors, however not all procedures end in horror. I've had cats all my life (my family growing up and my own as an adult). All of our cats have been front de-clawed and none of them have had any problems. If you want to have a trusting documentary you need to fairly represent both sides of the story. I gave the film 5 stars because they represented the one side of things. Maybe someone will write the other side of things one day.

This is an inspiring yet disturbing documentary of how Veterinarian Jennifer Conrad and other animal advocates overcame the lobbying efforts of the CVMA (Calif. Veterinary Med. Assoc.) and SFVMA (San Francisco Vet. Med. Assoc.) to suppress the truth about the utter cruelty and maiming effect of feline declawing. Dr. Conrad exposes how these organizations don't act as true medical associations but rather as trade associations protecting the economic interests of their members, who can make over a thousand dollars for each declawing procedure. About 25% of the 80 million domestic cats are declawed in the U.S., that is, 20 million declawed cats. 20 million declawed cats can potentially represent $2 trillion @ $1,000, for example. Every developed country except the United States has outlawed cat declawing, but California is now the first state to have a handful of cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, to ban declawing. I rated this 10 out of 10 on IMDb: a very important success of those who are opposed to any kind of cruelty, and one that needs to be built upon, so that one day the U.S. will join the rest of the civilized world in banning this cruel practice.