Jeri says, of altering and declawing cats, "My guess is the cats are probably not fond of either procedure. One procedure is not more cruel than the other. The difference between the two is SOLELY whether we perceive the benefits are worth the pain to the animals. It's going to vary from person to person..." This very much reflects my own viewpoint, but let me add (referring to gnu's post) that cats are probably not fond of being put down simply because they won't break what a human thinks is a "bad" habit, either.

As Jeri says, opinion varies on these issues. I've expressed my opinion about declawing, and the reasons I hold that opinion, but I certainly don't think that declawing should be done to every cat, or even to every indoor cat.

Declawing my cat works for me, in my situation, because I live alone and go to work and therefore can't be around the apartment all the time to reinforce the training of a cat not to claw. It's not just the economical consideration of replacing my furniture or the apartment's carpeting (which I'd have to pay for out of my security deposit) that concerns me as much as the SAFETY issue of the window screens: if the cat claws a hole through the screen and takes a notion to jump out after a bird (and, believe me, my cat would!), he's going to fall from the second story and very likely injure himself. Even if he walked away from that fall, he'd still be close to a four-lane road (where an apartment- neighbor's indoor-outdoor cat was run over 2 years ago) (by the way, that neighbor lost another of his cats when it was accidentally shut in a shed down the street for several weeks, and was too close to death to survive once found).

As it is, I can simply let my cat rub his paws on the screens, the furniture, the bedding, and my pants-leg without stressing him by yelling or growling at him or shaking a soda can full of gravel or any of that. It makes for a more peaceful and harmonious relationship between me and my cat. Some people are of the opinion that that relationship is the "bottom line", the reason to have pets in the first place. I understand that others are of the opinion that an animal must be kept as close to its "wild nature" as possible, no matter what the cost to the humans in the same household, and that to surgically alter an animal in any way is "sick". Still others think that some surgical procedures are okay while others are not. It's a judgment call, so please let us not sit in judgment of one another over it.