Something rather unusual started happening earlier this year …
People came into the practice and started weighing their pets, asking if they were overweight and if so, what they could do to help. For a while, they did not scoff at my suggestion that their pets could do with a bit of a diet.
It was the Rusty Benton case on 12th Jan prompted this unusual behaviour. This was the first time any owner had been convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to their pet by allowing it to become overweight. Rusty was extremely overweight at 69.8kg (a usual Labrador weighs around 30kg) however the case highlights one thing: it’s not the pet’s fault. Parents of overweight children are likewise having to accept responsibility and in some recent news cases, face their kids being taken into care if they don’t act. Dogs and cats are similar to children. They have a mental age of 2-3 years old and cannot understand the consequences of overeating.
I know how greedy labradors are and how easy it is for them to gain weight. I know that a daily ration of pet food actually doesn’t look much when tipped into the bowl (the vastly oversized pet bowls that seem to be ubiquitous) I know how hard it is to prevent pets hoovering up food dropped by the kids and I know that it’s hard to exercise dogs well when it gets dark at 4pm. I understand the reasons above mean that weight control can be difficult but they cannot prevent us from taking responsibility. Ultimately, although it may be a battle, we can control our pets weight.
My only sympathy lies with the cat owner that is carefully measuring out their rations whilst the cat is nipping over the fence and eating the food that next-door think they’re leaving out for the hedgehogs - that applies to cats only - dog owners you still have no excuse 
I would also like to add 2 other parties to the guilty list:
1. The manufacturers of the oversized food bowls we all have buy
This is what Sproket’s dinner looks like in his bowl, pathetic eh? (he does also get a similar sized breakfast before you report me to the RSPCA)
2. The pet food companies that write rubbish on the side of their packs like Whiskers ”cats will regulate what they eat and can be offered as much food as they can consume” and Pedigree Markies “labradors can eat 15 per day”
I don’t believe that you can feed 15 Markies to a Labrador without it putting on weight. That’s like saying to you can have a mars bar per day. Pedigree petfoods - you have a lot to answer for!
Hopefully I haven’t shot myself in the foot and put you off coming to ask advice if you want to help your pet diet. If I sound disparaging it’s only from years of trying to fix this problem. If you actually see the problem and want to do something, I will probably hug you and cry and give you the free services of one of our fabulous nurses to help you every step of the way.
Finally, if you have a pet that walks away from a full food bowl when it’s had enough, and has never tried to steal from your bin you can count yourself lucky, this article doesn’t apply to you. Interestingly, with the new pet diet pills coming our way later this year, the promise is that even the greediest labrador’s appetite can be quashed. The claim exits that they will walk away contented from a food bowl (even if still 1/2 full) once they have eaten enough, making dieting a piece of cake. Whether these pills are ethical, or worth the £250 I expect they’ll cost for a course, I’ll leave that to another blog..
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