Is your cat destroying your furniture? Is he tearing it to pieces and driving you to distraction scratching away at the legs of your favourite dining room table until your table looks like it’s been a part of the Texas chainsaw massacre? Are you now thinking about de-clawing your cat?

Cats just love to scratch at things, it’s quite natural and normal and instinctive. It helps them shed some of the excess dead nail material on their claws and it also helps them mark their territory in the house by leaving slight amounts of scent around. Of course your cat doesn’t know that you’re not intending to let any rival cats in any time soon.

If you think you’ll stop your cat from clawing then think again. Being instinctive it’s highly unlikely that scolding him or punishing him or throwing him outside or smacking his paws will do much at all to stop him scratching. Do all those things and he will still tear up the legs of your favourite table and drive you to distraction.

Cat owners who reach the stage of realization that they are unable to stop the cat scratching the furniture sometimes consider de-clawing their cat. This is a surgical procedure where the claws, usually on the front legs only, are removed with part of the bones. It is expensive, it is extremely painful for the cat who needs to walk around on injured feet for a period of time whilst they are healing, and it also poses various risks to the cat.

Cats have some activities which require claws. They use their claws when running or jumping or stretching or climbing or digging in their litter box.

And of course if your cat is attacked by a dog then claws are his only source of defence. But he can’t defend himself with no claws.

The sad fact is that there are much cheaper, less painful and less stressful solutions to de-clawing a cat. The best of these is to spend some $20 or less buying a cat scratching post and spend some training him to use it.

If you don’t know about them then a cat scratching post is a simple piece of cat furniture which gives him a place to scratch away without damaging anything important. Whilst it can be difficult to train him to use it is certainly way less stressful and less expensive than subjecting him to unnecessary surgery.

In some countries cat de-clawing is outlawed because it is unnecessary and painful for the cat. It is also painful for the owners wallet and the need for it is removed simply by training your cat to use a simple and cheap cat scratching post.