I have a spiritual teacher in my house. His name is Milo and he is a cat. He is most active at night time, but other then that he is not very active. Right now he is sleeping, but the slightest movement in the environment wakes him up. He does not much besides sleeping, eating, and pooing. Life is very simple for the cat.
His food is guaranteed. His shelter is guaranteed. The only price he had to pay was his claws and private parts. We did not remove the parts the previous owners did. I don't know if I could have my pet declawed because the claws are their defense and they can hunt with claws or climb up trees with claws. Without claws the pet becomes nothing more then a house cat. Cats lose their personality. Cats probably feel helpless. Declawing a cat is purely selfish thing humans do, because they value their furniture more then they value the lives of their pets. Don't declaw cat. What you are doing is removing a portion of their paws. Your not just removing the claws.
Animals are here to teach us about compassion. They are silent and they don't cause harm to us unless we provoke them. Some animals though want to eat us those are dangerous and we need to watch out for them, but most animals are kind in that they want to be left alone. Domesticated animals like human company, but wild animals leave them alone if you can. I was believer in veganism, but I just don't think vegan diet is very sustainable in the long run.