And your furniture does not make you laugh, or greet you when you come home, or cuddle up to you, you can't play with it and won't grieve for it when it's gone. How someone can mutilate a sentient being for the sake of an inanimate object is beyond me - but even more beyond my comprehension is how a veterinarian can either carry out or defend this grotesque mutilation (from the UK, a country that has never declawed cats - or cropped dogs' ears or debarked dogs, our veterinary ruling body has never permitted these)