The Paw Project's mission is to educate the public about the painful and crippling effects of feline declawing, to promote animal welfare through the abolition of the practice of declaw surgery, and to rehabilitate big cats that have been declawed.
The Paw Project is a 501(c)(3) charitable corporation in the State of California.
The Paw Project is supported by private donations and the sale of LaLa Cards, animal-themed greeting cards. The tax-deductible contributions are used for costs of surgical facilities and supplies, educational programs, and anti-declawing efforts.
Many people, including animal lovers, do not realize that declawing is a surgical procedure in which the animal's toes are amputated at the last joint. A portion of the bone, not just the nail, is removed. Declawing may result in permanent lameness, arthritis, and other long-term complications. The practice, although common in the United States, is rarely performed in the rest of the civilized world. It is actually illegal in many countries. Great Britain's Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons goes so far as to declare declawing "unnecessary mutilation."
Domestic cats are declawed by pet owners who give the reason that they wish to protect their household furniture. They are seldom fully informed of the potential consequences of declawing by their veterinarians. Behavior problems in declawed house cats, such as biting and litter box avoidance, are not uncommon. The unfortunate feline victims are frequently relinquished to the "pound." With poor prospects of finding understanding new owners, these animals are usually destroyed.
In a misguided attempt to keep big cats, such as lions and tigers, as pets, their owners have the animals declawed as cubs, believing that they will be protected against injury. Later, when the cats prove to be poor pets, weighing hundreds of pounds and eating 20 pounds of meat a day, they are often neglected, confiscated by animal regulatory officials, or abandoned. They often end up in animal sanctuaries, such as The Wildlife Waystation in southern California, where The Paw Project originated.
The effects of declawing are particularly debilitating for big cats. Since April 2000, veterinarians working with The Paw Project have performed reparative surgery on lions, tigers, cougars, leopards and jaguars that had been maimed by declawing. The results have been dramatic. Enjoying relief for the first time after years of suffering, cats that could hobble only a few agonizing steps before surgery, now are able to leap, run and play much more as nature intended.
Over forty captive wild and exotic cats in southern California sanctuaries have been treated, ranging from a 550 pound tiger to a 30 pound bobcat. There are still dozens of declawed cats on the waiting list to be treated at the Wildlife Waystation and other southern California sanctuaries, such as The Nature of Wildworks, the ECO Station, and Wildlife on Wheels. Unfortunately, this is a very small number of the animals whose lives could be transformed by surgery. With well over 100 big cat sanctuaries in 41 states, more than 1000 declawed cats live each day in constant pain. The Paw Project's goal is to help every one of these cats by providing either financial or educational support to sanctuaries and veterinarians.
