Urge Property Management Company to End Cruel Declawing Policies

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BACKGROUND

Reportedly, Hunt Pacific Management Corporation—a commercial real-estate company that owns multiple apartment complexes across several states—requires tenants to declaw their cats. PETA has contacted the company several times, but to no avail. We need your help!

Outlawed in 22 countries, declawing is a cruel and permanently crippling surgery involving amputation of the last joint of every toe, including bones and cartilage! Persistent pain, loss of balance, nerve damage, bone chips requiring additional surgery, gangrene, and skin disorders are associated physical complications—and nails can later grow back painfully and unseen, within the paw. Declawed cats often become reclusive, depressed, and insecure and begin eliminating outside the litterbox. Psychologically changed, these animals are then bounced around from home to home or wind up at animal shelters.     

Please politely urge Hunt Pacific Management Corporation to join the numerous property management companies that do not require declawing. And please, forward this alert widely!


WHOM TO CONTACT

Polite comments can be sent to:

Daniel Weber, President and CEO
Hunt Pacific Management Corporation
dweber@huntpacific.com


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear President and CEO Weber,

I am writing to ask that you please discontinue your requirement for tenants to declaw cats homed in any of your properties. This is a cruel, archaic procedure that causes suffering and pain, undesirable patterns and behaviour, and has been recognized as such internationally. Declawing is illegal or restricted in over 21 countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada. Cities such as San Francisco, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Berkeley, and Norfolk, Virginia, ban declawing.  The Humane Society of the U.S. and ASPCA oppose declawing. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons rejects the operation, describing it as “mutilation”.

Overwhelming evidence demonstrates declawing causes severe behavioral problems that often lead guardians to abandon their animals in overcrowded shelters; 33% of declawed cats begin post-procedure, according to a study in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medicine Association (JAVMA). National shelter surveys reveal that 70-80% of cats surrendered for behaviour issues are declawed. Declawed felines enter shelters with behavioral issues such as biting or not using the litter box, claims shelter director William Lombardi of Gloucester County, New Jersey. For the estimated 70% of declawed cats who are euthanized, the surgery is a death sentence.

Moreover, declawing generates suffering and permanent disability. The invasive procedure involes amputation of the last joint of every toe, including bones and cartilage. Persistent pain, loss of balance, nerve damage, bone chips requiring additional surgery, gangrene, and skin disorders are associated physical complications—and nails can later grow back painfully and unseen, within the paw. Declawed cats often become reclusive, depressed, and insecure and begin eliminating outside the litterbox. Psychologically changed, these animals are then bounced around from home to home or wind up at animal shelters. Veterinary experts recognize laser or scalpel declawing as among the most painful surgeries routinely performed.

Please reconsider this cruel policy and ban the declawing requirement for tenants’ cats in your properties.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this urgent appeal.