In Just Cats we believe compassionate and respectful handling of cats is instrumental in reducing the stress of the vet visit. For this reason we only use feline-friendly handling techniques and we adapt our approach to each individual cat and situation.
We believe Feline friendly handling has several advantages:
✜ Reduced fear and pain for the cat
✜ Allows early detection of medical concerns
✜ Allows us to provide the best care for your cat reducing the risk of injuries
✜ Reduced anxiety for the owner
Because of our commitment to feline friendliness we firmly believe scruffing is not an acceptable practice.
‘Scruffing’ is a term used to describe when a person grips a cat by the loose skin around the back of the neck as a form of restraint. Many people are of the assumption that because Queens carry their young in their mouth that it is no different to us carrying adult cats by the scruff of their neck. However, this is not the case. Kittens can be held in that way by their mother because of a reflex that makes them go limp. This reflex it’s only present for the first few weeks of their life. Among adult cats, being held by the neck is a sign of dominance and aggression that has nothing to do with the behaviour shown by kittens and queens.
Scruffing is often used by people out of fear if the cat is exhibiting some aggression toward the handler. This type of situation needs to be diffused, not exacerbated. Scruffing takes away all control from the cat and leaves them in a vulnerable position which they do not like. This can potentially have a really negative impact on the cat (and on the handler).
Thanks to our studies in cat friendly handling we have other techniques to approach fearful or stressed cats so that scruffing is something they’ll never experience in Just Cats.