Declawing house cats to keep them from scratching people and furniture is controversial—and even banned in some countries and areas in the U.S.—but the practice is not limited to house cats. In a new study, researchers looked at the effects of declawing on larger cat species and found that declawing disproportionately impacts their muscular capabilities as compared to their smaller brethren.
The work appears in Animals.
While it is illegal in the U.S. to surgically modify an exotic animal, declawing is still done on large cats like lions and tigers, often in an effort to allow cubs to more safely be handled in photo opportunities or for entertainment purposes.
“What people might not realize is that declawing a cat is not like trimming our fingernails; rather, it is removing part or all of the last bone of each digit,” says Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University and corresponding author of the research. “Like us, each cat finger has three bones, and declawing is literally cutting that third bone off at the joint.”
The researchers looked at the muscular anatomy of over a dozen exotic cats—from smaller species including bobcats, servals and ocelots, to lions and tigers—to determine the effect of declawing on their forelimb musculature.
2023-07-31 16:00:03
Link from phys.org