My wife and I have 2 cats, ages 3 and 4, both fully clawed. Had them both since they were each kittens. You know how we got around them scratching up furniture?
We fucking trained them.
Yeah really, cats are able to be trained, contrary to popular belief. Here is our cat Clancy doing various tricks that we taught him...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of6wlUTFYFg
If you work with them, and actually put in the time and effort, it can be done. In addition to the above we have taught him obedience as well such as "come", "stay", and things like making sure he doesn't scratch up the furniture and carpet and staying off of the table and cabinets and stuff. For "tricks" focus on rewards as you would a dog or any other pet that is trainable, and for obedience focus on both rewards as well as simple punishments such as a mist from a water spray bottle or the classic "coins in a soda bottle". If trained, you don't even need to worry about the cat snapping at you or any of that.
People don't want to put in the time and effort for a cat because there is a lazier way around the possible issues - amputating a part of their body that is pretty useful to them in their day to day life. Forget about training them, lets just slice off the offending part of their body and be done with it. I almost don't put all of the blame on the cat owners that decide to go that way though. Most people don't realize that there are other options.
Before I got married and we got Clancy, I was a declaw guy. My wife was vehemently against it though, and especially after getting Clancy I realized just how awful and lazy it is to do. I couldn't even imagine doing it to him. We also had to sign a contract stating that we would not have him declawed since we bought a hypo-allergenic Siberian Forest Cat, but even without that I wouldn't even consider doing it to him or any future cats that we will own. In addition to the very simple training, we also keep his nails clipped. It is very easy to do and once done you don't have to worry about possible damage anyway. When clipping, just make sure you don't cut them too far down or you'll cut the quick. It's very easy to tell how far down you can cut, but you can actually go a lot shorter than most people realize...
As long as you stay above the darker reddish part, you are fine. Just do not cut into that part or you will have one hurt and pissed off cat. Again, if your cat doesn't want to play along then train them to be fine with it with encouragement and treats. It's almost a trick you are teaching them to be fine with it. Or if you don't want to do it take them to the groomers and if they do cats they can do it for you.
Then, if you don't want to mess with trimming them, there are the little caps that have been mentioned over and over. They are very simple to apply and they last for a good long while, and then you simply replace them.
There are way too many alternatives to declawing for it to be an option. Heck, I'm shocked it's even still a legal procedure in the US and Canada considering it is an uncommon, if not illegal, practice in the rest of the world.
For too long cats have seemingly been the pet for the lazy, those that don't want to do much training or anything else. Too many people view them as totally self-sufficient, other than the litter box and being fed, and you get one and that's the end of it. To make things even worse the laziest of the lazy then decide to take it a step further and slice off their claws to cut down on even that bit of care. Cats are much like dogs, they can be trained, it takes work and time and effort to own a cat just like any other.
