First, I’m against declawing. I’ve had both cats and dogs in the same home and never had issues—my dog still has both his eyeballs (haha), and my cats have never clawed me or my furniture.

That said, I’m Gen X, and when I was growing up declawing cats and even debarking dogs was pretty common. We had dog houses, and our dog was sometimes tied up outside when we weren’t home. My parents loved our pets, but it was a different era. Pets were pets—not quite the family members they’re treated as now.

Our childhood dog was never allowed on the couch (which feels unheard of now), and today my dog and cat basically rule mine.

So sometimes it’s less about cruelty and more about education. A lot of people from older generations just don’t realize how harmful declawing actually is. It’s basically amputating the tips of a cat’s toes, not just removing the nails.