Heres some info on why declawing is cruel to us cats:

Why Do We Claw Objects? 
We claw to have fun and exercise, to maintain the condition of their nails, and to mark their territory—visually and with scent. We stretch by digging our claws in and pulling against their own claw-hold. Cats’ natural instinct to scratch serves both their physical and psychological needs. Before domestication, cats satisfied these needs by clawing tree trunks. Today, domesticated cats can be guided to satisfy their desire to claw without damaging valuable property.

Understanding Declawing
Declawing involves 10 separate, painful amputations. It is a serious surgery, not just a manicure. Declawing a cat involves general anesthesia and amputation of the last joint of each toe, including the bones, not just the nail.(1) The following are possible complications of this surgery:
• Adverse reaction to anesthetic
• Gangrene, which can lead to limb amputation
• Hemorrhaging
• Permanent nerve damage
• Persistent pain
• Reluctance to walk
• Scar tissue formation
• Sequestrum (bone chips), requiring additional surgery(2)
• Skin disorders

After surgery, the nails may grow back inside the paw, causing pain but remaining invisible to observers. Declawing results in a gradual weakening of leg, shoulder, and back muscles, and because of impaired balance caused by the procedure, declawed cats have to relearn to walk, much as a person would after losing his or her toes.

Lasting Difficulties
Without claws, even house-trained cats may urinate and defecate outside the litterbox in an attempt to mark their territory. Declawed cats may be morose, reclusive, and withdrawn or irritable, aggressive, and unpredictable. Many people think that declawed cats are safer around babies, but in fact, the lack of claws, a cat’s first line of defense, makes many cats feel so insecure that they tend to bite more often as a means of self-protection.(3) A study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) reported that of those observed, 33 percent of declawed cats developed at least one behavioral problem and 80 percent had more than one medical complication.(4) Declawed cats are also more likely to be surrendered to shelters.(5)

Banned by Countries and Cities and Condemned by Vets
Nearly two dozen countries—including England, Australia, and Japan—ban or severely restrict declawing surgeries.(6) Catalonia, Spain, prohibits declawing under its Law of Animal Protection.(7) A declawing ban was passed in West Hollywood, California, where one city council official explained, “As guardians of animals, we have a relationship of respect, that the animal not be amputated or subjected to techniques that create harm.”(8) On the heels of that precedent-setting legislation, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution “condemning” declawing and urging veterinarians to drop the procedure.(9)


Many vets refuse to perform the surgery. Dr. Jennifer Conrad wrote in JAVMA that “[r]outine declawing (unlike sterilization) is never performed for the sake of the animal” and that as a veterinarian, she has “an obligation to do what is best for the animals and not what is most convenient for their owners.”(10) Dr. Melinda Merck does not perform declawing surgeries at her Georgia clinic, saying the process “is an amputation … and it’s awful.”(11) The Cat Practice in New York City tells its clients, “If you love your cat … don’t declaw!”(12)


Other options instead of declawing include getting a scratching post and teaching your cat how to use it, or getting "soft paws", which are caps that fit over the claw of your cat, thus disenabling him to scratch things.