A Famous Korean Celebrity Allegedly Abused Their Pet To “Protect” Their Face

Kim Myung Chul, a cat veterinarian and YouTuber based in Seoul, recently uploaded a video on his channel revealing that he knows a well-known Korean celebrity who has declawed their cat to protect their face.

According to his account, this celebrity sent their cat to his clinic one day, and Kim noticed that the pet had been declawed. The owner’s justification was that they couldn’t afford to get their face scratched by the cat.

One time, I had a cat visit the clinic. The cat belonged to a nationally well-known celebrity. And the [cat’s condition] left me devastated. The cat had already been declawed…Guess why, though? The celebrity declawed their cat because they couldn’t risk getting scratched in the face.

—Kim Myung Chul

The vet then explained that declawing cats is a painful process where you basically amputate their knuckles to stop the re-growth of claws. “Declawing a cat is like cutting off a human’s fingers. It involves amputation at the joints, so the nails won’t ever grow back,” Kim said.

In his professional opinion, such behavior is considered cat abuse. The pets feel extreme pain during the recovery process after declawing and even after they are fully healed, losing their protective measures puts a lot of stress on the cat.

I’ve performed declawing procedures before, but only to treat nails that fall out and cause infections. But some people opt to declaw their cats because they would rather protect their furniture or their faces from being scratched. The more I think about it, the angrier I get.

—Kim Myung Chul

The viewers also found it disturbing how this owner treated their cat, with many wishing somehow this celebrity’s identity be revealed so that they at least feel the public embarrassment.

• “How much pain the kitty must have been in…They think cats are dolls…I hope everything they do gets ruined…who the hell is this celebrity.”
• “Woah…I am hearing about something like declawing for the first time…how could something like that even exist….my heart hurts so much.”
• “They say it’s their pet, but at the end of the day, the reality is they raise them as accessories for self-satisfaction…”
• “You psychopaths, please stop having cats as pets. It’s better they grow up on the streets than getting abused.”