I have met declawed cats. They don’t seem quite happy. And that argument about drapes? Get cheaper drapes and replace them more often, or don’t have a cat in the first place. And how are you going to deal with the unpredictability and messiness of a child, if you’re planning on having one, if you can’t even deal with a cat with claws and still choose to have a cat? Sheesh.

I have met one cat that was born without claws. He was happy. And in a household that wouldn’t dream of declawing him had he come with claws. And they let their children (and then their visiting grandchildren) be noisy, messy, wonderful children. :) That’s how it should be, if you’re going to keep a cat, or have a child.

(And all my kids go to the dentist and have as much done as they and the dentist together can handle each visit, and we have a plan in place to deal with problems beyond the scope of this particular dentist, for anyone in the family.)

It comes down to the normalising dialogue and there are no easy ansers, on the one hand a lack of cosmetic dentistry is a class thing, and the ultimate underclass to be denied are those in institutions. On the other hand a straight and clean set of teeth are valued because they show that money has been spent but an egalitarian discourse should say that what does that matter so long as the teeth funtion well enough.

To some extent where dentistry is a luxury it is an inequality when it is denied to those who it is assumed cannot benefit from the social value of it so I don’t know.

My chihuahua has tooth problems because, like many small dogs, he has a dry mouth. Every time I take him to the vet he gets more teeth pulled. I give him big crunchy biscuits to eat, so his molars (which he uses to crunch his biscuits) are actually in pretty good shape; it’s his front teeth that he’s losing. If I brushed his teeth twice a day I could spare his front teeth longer, but it’s a drag and he hates it so I don’t. Besides, from my perspective he probably doesn’t need his front teeth for much besides holding his tongue inside his mouth: wild dogs use them for shredding meat and catching fleas, neither of which are an issue for my coddled housepet. And I think he’s cute when his tongue sticks out.

Not being familiar with bins, and (as mentioned earlier) being determined to see everything in a positive light, I imagine that the practice of teeth-pulling has multiple origins. For instance, if you are staff at an institution you may take it for granted that all the residents are going to lose their teeth anyway… so why go through all the bother of keeping them. Why not just pull them all at the first sign of trouble, and avoid the hassle and pain and distress of toothache and tooth-sensitivity and drilling and cavity-filling. And if a toothless resident is easier to manage behaviourally as well, so much the better.

Another way of putting it would be that staff see maintaining resident’s teeth as more hassle than it’s worth, so they project and imagine that residents see it the same way. (Or imagine that if residents were more rational that they would see it the same way.)

It takes more imagination for a staff member to give up their own perspective and remember that most people are subjectively very attached to their teeth and don’t want them removed, and that putting in the effort to preserve someone’s smile would probably be appreciated. Even a smile that’s more difficult to maintain. *Especially* a smile that’s more difficult to maintain.

And not even callous, rationalising me asked the vet to pull all my dog’s teeth as prophylaxis!

THIS is what my mind was trying to get at when I was harping on matter-of-fact-ness, but I couldn’t get straight at the idea.

The good stuff should be matter-of-fact and the bad stuff should be the surprise, in the rare times it happens (not in the rare times it’s reported, while still happening a lot)…

When will we see that kind of world?!

Ettina: I’ve met many declawed cats who also do the same thing or similar. If you got your hand anywhere near them, they’d bite.

As a side-note, it’s interesting that several of the people I’ve talked to about declawing would try to use the moral high ground of talking about how they adopted the cat and saved him/her from an infinitely worse life, and how it somehow follows from there that they can do anything they want to the cat. (Or use the false dichotomy: “Which would be worse, being declawed or starving to death on the street?”, as if those are the only two options.)