Search Results: hes cutting me out of his life

I saw a meme post of "my hands look like this (picture was hands scratched and bleeding) so she can look like this (cat claws)" (meme attached)


This was followed with comments like "just trim their claws, I have for years" and "this is why I declaw my cats"

Firstly where I am from it's illegal to declaw a cat. But I've never once thought of cutting my cats claws. Nobody has ever told me to, he scratches them down himself in the garden, and since the fox hunting ban we've had an increasing problem with foxes. To me his claws are his weapon and defence. He's usually well behaved about keeping claws in when play fighting but sometimes excitement takes over. I would rather light scratches than him being eaten.
On the flip side because he is too large for indoor scratching posts he uses our sofa... he gets yelled at and punished but it's the only thing (apart from curtains) that he can use. End of the day, it's a sofa, I would rather his life that some fabric.

what are your views? Do you trim or declaw your cat? What's your reasons to or not?