Fat cats and plump pooches – Telegraph Blogs

Saturday 15 March 2014 | Blog Feed | All feeds

Pete Wedderburn


Fat cats and plump pooches

There's too much food and not enough activity in the Western world. Around two-thirds of people living in Britain are either overweight or obese, despite the fact that most of them could easily reach their ideal body weight by the no-cost solution of eating less and exercising more. The same issue affects pet animals, with research showing that one in three pets are overweight or obese, meaning that there are around seven million fat pets in the United Kingdom.

A survey by the Pet Food Manufacturers' Association (PFMA) released last week showed that only 10% of pet owners are concerned about their pet's weight. If the statistics are combined, the conclusion is that around seven out of ten owners of fat pets are not concerned about their pet's body condition. Most think that their chunky charges are a healthy weight. Even more worryingly, owners don't take responsibility for the situation – 62% of dog and 72% of cat owners believed they could personally either do nothing, or only a little about their pet's weight, even if they wanted to.

As with humans, the extra weight carried by pets is much more than just a cosmetic problem. Vets are seeing more and more diabetes, respiratory, and arthritic conditions in older pets as a direct result of obesity. Fat pets suffer pain and discomfort, and their life span is shortened. It's a problem that should be easy to fix: teach pet owners how to feed their pet the correct amount of food, how to assess their pet's body condition, and stress the importance of exercise in a pet's daily routine.

Pet food manufacturers are sometimes blamed for the problem, because the daily food ration suggested on pet food labels can seem excessive. Of course this is a myth, but it sounds plausible: tell people to feed their pets more, and they'll use more product. Perhaps in an effort to counter the myth, the PFMA has started an awareness campaign, attempting to teach pet owners how to assess their pets' body condition.

If you look at a photo of an obese dog or a fat cat, you'd think it'd be obvious when there's a problem, but these are extreme cases. The trick is to spot obesity in the early stages, so that the trend can be nipped in the bud. If you wait till pets are grossly obese, it starts to get expensive to sort things out, with special low-calorie diets and appetite-reducing medication.

You can check your own pet, by feeling for the outline of the bones of the spine and the ribs (if these can't be felt, your pet is fat) and by looking at your pet from above (the body shape should be wide at the chest, narrowing towards the rear of the animal). If you want an independent opinion, ask your local vet to weigh your pet on walk-on electronic scales. A once-yearly weigh-in is one of the best ways to pick up on a trend towards obesity.

It's all about education, making people realise that they have to take responsibility for their pet's body weight, and ensuring that they know what they need to do: more exercise, less food. It's easy to say "Pet owners just need to cop on to themselves", but the issue really isn't that simple. If it was, there'd be no fat pets, and there'd be no overweight humans either.

comments powered by Disqus