Difficult choice, maybe not for you. But not everyone feels the same way, nor has the funds readily available to replace the damage done, nor has the luxury of owning their own house/apartment/townhouse/condo. And I have seen plenty of really great owners that have tried every method possible to get the cat not to ruin the new couch or chair, carpet or whatever. Some have even gone so far as to hire behaviorists to come into the house to try to rectify the situation, but to no avail. I do not think that declawing is the first choice in these cases, but when all else fails and you have exhausted every possible alternative, what would you have the owner who desperatly loves his/her cat, and wants to keep him/her but also wants a relatively decent home, to do??? I have worked in a vet clinic for years, and am currently in vet school, and my personal choice is not to perform declaws..... But if I have an good owner who has exhausted all of the possible alternatives then choices have to be made, hard or not. Medicine is advancing and declaw with laser is an up and coming method which serves as a great viable alternative to surgical declaw. With the advent of laser and appropriate pain control if I absolutly had to declaw a cat to keep it in it's home vs. placing it up for adoption.... Well, it's a no brainer for me.... living kitty with a home or a dead one because of overpopulated shelters.

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