To ban or not to ban? More people believing declawing is animal abuse

[jsmirman]

43. Oh - just saw your edit

So these are just some general thoughts on the situation:

How can I heap the love and affection I do on my own little guy and not give a shit about the suffering of homeless animals and the crushing constancy of the millions of cats and dogs that are "put down" in this country every year?

The Humane Society estimates that FOUR million cats and dogs are "put down" every year in this country.

This would mean that approximately every EIGHT SECONDS a cat or dog is killed in this country because they are unwanted or inconvenient or pose a danger to the public health.

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/

This link suggests that spaying and neutering actually IS positive for the animals involved: http://www.alleycat.org/page.aspx?pid=667

Sure, I would be pretty darn opposed to someone cutting my nuts off, but the animal overpopulation issue is real, it is out there, and it is only going to get worse every day. Any claims that this is about us wanting pets is to close one's ears and pretend that the catastrophic current situation doesn't exist. It seems like sophistry over actual compassion.