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New York, 1:55 PM
Sat Nov 21
50 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/05/09
11/05/09
Of course I feel rather ambivalently about breeds and standards in general, since it usually just ends up with sick, inbred dogs. I love my mutt. #anthonysowell
11/05/09
If gay marriage is going to happen, it's going to happen because of judges and legislators. They tend to be a little more educated than the unwashed, unlettered masses, plus there's less of them so you don't need as much money to bribe them. Unless, of course, you live in a state like California where the state constitution is practically open-source and the filthy masses do have the final say. Then you're just shit out of luck. You can move to another state (avoid Iowa, though, no legal recognition is worth that). If you do, feel free to TP your neighbor's house and have your poodle use their flower bed as both a trough and a toilet. They don't like you anyway. #anthonysowell
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You're right that most Americans aren't super vehement about this issue, but when it comes to voting time, they're scared and looking for a convenient and exotic scapegoat. That way they don't have to think too much about the very pressing issues of our economy and the sad state this country is in.
But there needs to be an end to this political fear-mongering. It's really getting bad, and in a very real way we are slowly moving backwards on gay rights. Unacceptable. #anthonysowell
11/05/09
My whole life I have had cats. Many of them. And until the most recent ones, they have all been declawed and we have never had any problems with them because of it. I really don't know how so many people blame bad behaviour on declawing, regardless of it being cruel (or not).
The cats we did have that were declawed lived mostly long and healthy lives and had very good tempers, were cuddly and non-violent. Now we have two clawed cats and they are equally loving and healthy. My friend has a clawed cat who is the devil incarnate. Make of all this what you will.
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I just feel that declawing is unkind. Imagine how much it would hurt to have your fingernails surgically removed, and what a pain in the ass it would be to live without them. #anthonysowell
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My MIL has declawed all her cats, but refuses to crop her dog's ears. I don't understand it. I suppose only one could damage the leather sofa. #anthonysowell
11/06/09
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Also, JEALOUS. I've wanted a polydactyl cat for YEARS. I have to keep reminding myself that they don't actually have skin-flap wings that let them glide around, because the name makes me think of 'pterodactyl.' #anthonysowell
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11/06/09
I do understand it's painful, but we also neuter and spay animals, for our own good and not theirs. I had a cat that was declawed that managed to hold his own with other neighbourhood cats - he ended up just screaming at the other cat and whap-whapping him on the head, with vigour. Also, I have clawed cats that, against other cats, have not fared well (one almost lost her eyeball!).
So I understand the argument against it, and where I live (Europe) I think it's illegal, but I still do think that all the decisions we make about our pets are ultimately in our best interests and not the pets'. I won't be declawing any felines any time soon, but I don't judge people who do... #anthonysowell
11/06/09
I mean, I still like my cat, but I do sometimes wish she had cool-ass mutations. #anthonysowell
11/06/09
My subdivision back home has had a ton of feral cats the past few years, because some people moved out and left a litter of kittens behind, which all grew up into un-spayed/un-neutered feral cats. Now, there are feral cats running around everywhere. It's really unfortunate. That's why people should spay/neuter pets (and also, not abandon them, but that's another story). #anthonysowell
11/06/09
And sterilising an animal is different from declawing. It's not for human convenience. There's always a benefit to risk ratio when undergoing any medical treatment, either in human or animals. The benefits of getting an animal sterilised outweigh the risks. It reduces the incidence of a range of cancers, the lack of stress of going into heat for female cats makes for a more docile and contented animal, there's no physical strain on the female cat of gestating and giving birth to kittens who will probably have problems being rehomed, and the male cats will not be so aggressive and will not have the urge to wander and piss on everything in sight. There are a huge list of reasons why sterilising an animal is the right thing to do. It makes for happier and healthier cats and curbs the population growth of an animal that thrives under human care and currently has a huge feral population worldwide. That's preventing pain and suffering across the board.
Declawing saves some asshole's furniture.
I rest my case. #anthonysowell
11/06/09
A female dog spayed before her first heat lives 32% longer (really). A female dog who's had two heats or more has a 26% chance of getting breast cancer over her natural lifespan, whereas if she's spayed before her first heat she has a 0.05% percent chance. These are peer-reviewed numbers by the way.
A male dog is less dramatic - 21% life extension on average for a dog neutered before the age of one year.
Many people spay a female dog to avoid messy heats and neuter a male dog to avoid their... masculine tendencies, but that's a small insignificant reason to spay/neuter. The best reason to spay/neuter is for your pet's health and happiness (imagine you're a male dog with a male sex drive but your owners never let you come. I say no balls is better than blue-balls). #anthonysowell
11/06/09
In the case (and ONLY in the case) that a cat is so dangerous that the owners' only other option is to give their cat up (usually to a pound, as violent cats almost never find homes), declawing can be an option.
Certainly, if you're declawing to save your furniture, you need to rethink owning pets. #anthonysowell
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11/06/09
On the other hand, I can understand wanting to protect your kids (especially if you have toddlers or babies), if even from just 5-6 months. #anthonysowell
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11/09/09
I couldn't even begin to think of mutilating an animal like that when the more beneficial thing would be to teach the kid not to frighten a cat so much that it would go to the (often) last resort of scratching.
I live in Australia. Declawing is banned here, and people and animals seem to get on fine. I don't see any good reason outside of extreme medical grounds to declaw. "Protecting kids" isn't enough of a reason, especially when that "asshole phase" you mention is just a phase.
(Not criticising you here, just the prevailing idea that declawing is no big deal and that there's any upside to it. There rarely, rarely is.) #anthonysowell
11/09/09
The fact is, 99.5% of cats will do fine in an environment where declawing isn't an option, but the other .5% will be put down. I say this not as an idealist but as a practical person who has worked in shelters and seen the number of cats sent to us because they bite and scratch and who we have no choice but eventually to put down (we can't feed hundreds of thousands of cats). In most of those cases, it's simply overpopulation, but in some it's not. In some, it's a family whose cat attacks them constantly and they're at their wits end. I know families who kept their cat through years of scratches until the kid had an eye damaged or needed multiple stitches. Then the cat is killed and the kid is safe. I'd say declawing, as nasty as it is, is better than the nuclear option of killing unwanted pets. #anthonysowell
11/09/09
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11/05/09
Our cats are perfectly fine after being declawed, I cannot say that there was a single downside to the entire procedure. They walk and run perfectly, eat great, don't act out at all. There is a newer kind of declawing which is less invasive than the traditional kind, and I feel I must correct this kind of misinformation thats going on here. We came to this tough decision only after guests had been clawed by my cats and we had tried all other solutions.
There are millions of cats out there every day being beaten up and abused by their owners and people are obsessed with s single surgical procedure, done with general anesthesia, that's performed by most vets in this country, and freaking out about it? Interesting set of priorities. I'd love for someone to actually meet my cats and tell me face to face that I'm abusing them. #anthonysowell
11/05/09
Or, you know, we could stop pressuring them to 'look good'. Just a thought. #anthonysowell
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God calls shellfish an abomination and equal protection under the law means exactly what it says. Well...at least they're consistent... #anthonysowell
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Aaaaand, this is part of the reason that I get such a squicked-out feeling about people gushing about the Obamas (even though they are, in many ways, gush-worthy) in the press: it's too easy to make them blank canvases for our own political beliefs. It's too easy to, say, assume that Michelle doesn't mind her makeover from Woman With An Opinion to Mom In Chief. It's too easy to assume that Barack is the world's most involved dad, when in fact he hasn't lived in the same house with the girls regularly since he was elected to the Illinois Senate. It's too easy to assume that the anti-gay rhetoric he spouted during the campaign must just be for show, because in your head you want to believe he's a good progressive on gay rights. But that doesn't make it true. #anthonysowell
11/05/09
I know I will never agree 100% with any politician, but it is still aggravating. #anthonysowell
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We are talking about cats, though, and there isn't much point in comparing one cat to another! They're all going be different beasties. #anthonysowell
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THIS is important. Let's pay attention to what this means. #anthonysowell
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Raccoons are mean fuckers, after all. #anthonysowell
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11/05/09
I've known several declawed cats, and every single one of them had behavior problems. Owners should invest in a squirt bottle, some catnip, and a lot of scratching posts instead!
*gets off soapbox* #anthonysowell
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DO NOT ADOPT TO PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH DECLAWING!!!!!! Your kittens will thank you. #anthonysowell
11/05/09
I totally understand why people think it's cruel, and I think if I were to get cats now, I would get caps for their claws instead of having them declawed. When I had it done years ago, I hadn't heard anything about it causing any kind of long-term problems.
Just wanted to point out (not to you specifically, just in general) that not everyone gets cats declawed simply to protect their furniture. #anthonysowell
11/05/09
Also, I'm being double selfish by trying people I know first so I can trust that my little buddies are going to be okay and I can maybe see them again. I'm surprised at how many people (people I like!) care more about their furniture than their pet. AND it's worth pointing out that I'm living with a whopping *4* cats right now and my furniture looks just fine. Toys and scratching posts, people! GAWD... #anthonysowell
11/05/09