Sept. 2017
Why do declawing vets keep playing the cyber-bullying victim card?
Another declawing vet practice is crying cyber-bully victim after hundreds of people provided factual and scientific, educational information to correct some false information that they were giving to the public about declawing cats and cat health.
The irony is that this is a New Jersey vet practice’s President is playing the victim card, even though the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association (NJVMA) has hired the state’s top lobbying firm to fight our important NJ anti-declaw bill.
That’s right, the NJVMA is paying an estimated $2-5k a month to the top lobbying firm in NJ, Princeton Public Affairs Group, to fight our important anti-declaw bill so that declawing can continue to be as legal as possible … and also to do their PR to make the NJ veterinarians look good while they fight to keep this cruelty legal.
Vets playing the cyberbully victim card … the state’s top lobbying firm … could the two be related? Is this just some slick public relations move?
Do veterinarians really think it is “cyber-bullying” when they post incorrect information about declawing (to the public) on social media, and the public replies back with polite, factual information that disagrees? What’s the point of posting to the public on social media if you don’t want the public commenting back with polite, factual, accurate information?
Let’s look at what happened with this vet. Some of our supporters shared with us this picture, posted by St Francis Veterinary Hospital of Woolwich Township, NJ, boasting that this kitty named “KC” was purring because he was feeling good after being neutered, declawed and having an eye removed.
Hundreds of people pointed out to St Francis Vet Hospital that cats can purr when they are in pain, in an effort to self-soothe. Obviously poor KC was in a lot of pain after having 3 surgeries including 10 amputations of his toes, the removal of his eyeball and being neutered — all at the same time. Then we asked this vet practice why they performed the declaw on KC, and we were told that he had a communicable disease.
Photo posted on September 7, 2017.
The practice, which has the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) Cat Friendly logo on their website (UPDATE- I RECEIVED A NOTE FROM A SUPPORTER ON SEPT. 22, 2017 THAT THEY INFORMED AAFP THAT ST. FRANCIS WAS USING THE CAT FRIENDLY LOGO WHEN THEY WEREN’T ONE OF THOSE PRACTICES. BOTH REFERENCES TO AAFP ARE NOW OFF THEIR WEBSITE. SEE SCREENSHOTS AT THE END OF THE STORY) and American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) logo on their website, said that this cat was declawed because it has a communicable disease and the owner didn’t want the other cats in the household to catch it. They asked me this question.
I replied to Saint Francis Veterinary Center of South Jersey with this info but never received a reply back. The facts are that if they are talking about either FIV or FeLV, two diseases that are transmitted through bodily fluids like blood and saliva and therefore most commonly transmitted by deep bite wounds. Would they remove the cat’s teeth as well? If not, why not? They pose even more danger than the claws. Also, FIV is very rarely transmitted to other cats in friendly households. If you’re talking about FeLV, then I suppose there’s a chance, but declawing will do nothing to prevent it. The other cats can be vaccinated, and the owner can be educated about the risks of rough play or the cat can be rehomed to a FeLV positive home or a home with no other cats. Many cats live long and happy lives, never succumbing to FIV or FeLV morbidity. I believe with a good diet and excellent vet care, these viral positive cats can live quite healthy lives. No one would recommend declawing to stop the transmission of these viruses, so please be so kind as to tell me what communicable disease requires declawing to prevent its transmission.
St Francis continued to repeat that they declawed ONLY in those “rare and difficult cases”. Immediately around that time, one of St Francis’ clients posted a comment saying how much he liked St Francis Veterinary Hospital and that he had 6 cats declawed because, as he said, “I have expensive furniture and I don’t wish for it to be torn up.”
Oops! If a vet declaws “very, very rarely”, what’s the chance that he declaws 6 cats for just one of his clients? #Contradictions
I guess that means having “nice furniture” and multiple cats is one of those “rare and difficult cases”? Since St Francis refused to give examples of those “rare and difficult cases”, we are forced to speculate.
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After receiving over 170 comments on their thread — from concerned people providing numerous links, diagrams and text excerpts from doctors, scientific research papers, medical studies, authoritative sources such as the CDC and NIH and other similar, reputable sources — St Francis deleted all the comments.
Their reason for deleting all the comments was that they were under cyber-attack or cyber-bullied. We took dozens of screenshots and did not see any sign of this cyber bullying they were talking about.
It certainly appears as if they removed all the comments because they knew they were wrong and hated being corrected by the public and they were just trying to save face. They re-posted their original thread, in an attempt to do a do-over, but soon there were another 100+ comments from the public, containing factual information once again.
Apparently the declawing vet’s son, who is the President and MPA (Master of Public Administration) of the vet practice, didn’t like all this factual information contradicting this social media digital marketing efforts, so he cried cyber-bully victim and pleaded for help from his friends:
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St Francis continued to confuse everyone by claiming they want to help end declawing, yet they refused to respond to any of the valid comments from people.
Their comments were nothing but smoke and mirrors and contradictions about how they wanted to work together with us, yet provided no reason for us to trust that they were sincere with their comments.
If any of you have screenshots of all of these vile things that they say were said to them, please send it to me at CitytheKitty@gmail.com. I am adamantly against cyber bullying and always remind people to just be educational and respectful in their comments and posts. Please report any cyber bullying to the police if you are experiencing it!
Please go to my website and sign up to be a City the Kitty Crusader and let’s end declawing once and for all. www.citythekitty.com
Here is just one of the many comments where they said that they only declaw cats when it is the last, final option for the cat owners.
PLEASE SIGN THESE PETITIONS FOR THE ANTI-DECLAWING BILLS IN NJ AND NY!
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