This morning I turned the television on to see a segment on Better Homes and Gardens in which Dr Harry, an Australian vet, was doing a house-call to a woman with an overweight dog. The dog, a labrador, had severe arthritis and was in a lot of pain. Dr Harry worked out that the dog weighed a staggering 70kgs (154lbs). That’s more than me! Dr Harry asked the owner (who was actually brave enough to show her face on national television) what she fed the dog and she explained she gave him about 1kg (2.2lbs) of dry dog food and one large can of wet dog food every day. Oh, and about once a week, he got a meat pie. As a treat.

Well, my jaw dropped. How on earth can you feed your dog that much food and not feel guilty?! The dog was obviously very overweight and in a hell of a lot of pain, so it’s not like she wouldn’t have noticed something was wrong. Dr Harry took 1/3 of the can of wet food and a handful of the dry food, dumped them in a separate bowl and explained that that amount was appropriate for one days’ food.

Watching this reminded me of a New Zealand-made program Phill and I found on television when we were in Japan in which a vet and animal trainer help owners who have overweight pets to change the way they feed them and to add exercise into their pet’s daily routine. The sheer amount of food the owners fed their animals was gobsmacking. In addition to dry and wet pet food, some of these animals were getting, on a daily basis, bacon and eggs, pies and other human food that was not appropriate to feed animals.

The biggest shock to me was the fact that the majority of owners didn’t seem to realise it was their fault and that they were doing something wrong! One owner protested that she couldn’t feed her dog dog food because he didn’t like it, which is ridiculous because, as many vets have said, your dog will eat if it is hungry! Of course the animal is going to sulk and beg because they know you will give in and give it bacon or whatever you’ve been feeding it!

I was really quite frustrated when watching these shows because to me, I feel this constitutes animal cruelty. How difficult is it to ask a vet, or even google online, what is and isn’t appropriate to feed your pet, and the correct amounts to give them? Surely you can figure out that giving your dog a human breakfast is not a good idea? And isn’t it obvious that cats and dogs, just like humans, need exercise to remain healthy? Some of the owners weren’t even taking 10 minutes out of their days to throw a ball around, or dangle some string to encourage their animals to move, when the recommended minimum daily exercise amount is 30 minutes.

When someone takes on an animal, they take on responsibility. Responsibility to care for and protect that pet. Of course I know that some animals may have a medical condition which makes them gain weight, but the animals on these programs began to lose weight simply after their diet was altered and they began to exercise, which means  it was not caused by that (can you tell I watch Animal Precinct?). And even if their weight was caused by a medical condition, it’s the owners responsibility to take their pet to the vet for medical treatment and none of them were doing that. In fact, they’d rather write to a television show and get what I assume is free treatment, compared to forking out a vet’s fees.

I realise that they are only human and everyone makes mistakes, but to me, this is more than a simple mistake. This would have been going on for a long time for their animal to get to obesity and I don’t understand how you could possibly ignore it and continue to feed it ridiculous amounts of food.

This post is a bit of a rant and I’m sorry for that, but it’s just something that’s been on my mind and, since most of the people who read my blog are animal lovers and this blog is a medium for my personal thoughts, this is probably the best place for me to talk about this. I love Puddy and could not imagine doing anything to harm her and to watch those poor animals struggling to even roll over is so sad.

If an animal is relying on you for food, water and care … rise to the challenge. If you feel your pet is obese, or heading there, go see your vet who will be able to give you advice. It’s your responsibility.