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I'm glad there is a pets obesity awareness day.
I hate to see overweight dogs and cats. They are basically only living half a life no matter how kind their people are to them. How can a fat dog run in the woods and have fun? And fat cats -all they can do is lie around all day.
I think that sometimes, not only do people equate lots of food with "love", but they get a "blind spot" and can't see their animals as if there is anything amiss. If they get used to seeing them that way every day they don't see anything wrong!
Many a time I've heard it said, "Oh she/he is chunky. He was always that way. That's his build."
Obesity is a cause of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer among other things.
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10-14-2018, 03:20 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-21-2018, 03:52 PM by Catherine.)
Right now there is a pet obesity epidemic. It coincides with the human obesity epidemic. We eat too much and we feed our pets too much. We eat junk and unhealthy food and we do the same to our pets.
People don't want to see that their pet is over weight because they would have to see that they are over weight themselves.
A slim, trim person who exercises and eats well is going to take their dog for walks and feed them well. They are going to be aware of their cats health. People who don't look after themselves don't look after their pets any better.
You are right, overweight pets only live half a life. They are restricted by their lack of health from their weight while they are alive and they will die early. If we really loved our pets we wouldn't let them become obese in the first place.
Catherine
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I for one look after my pets a lot better than I look after myself hahaha.
The thing with issues such as pet obesity is that you can't just tell people they have to make their pet lose weight, or exercise more.
A lot of people lack proper pet education. There is so much crap pet food, cheap and readily available, and how often do people actually feed to the guidelines of the product? If it's quality food, yes it may be more expensive upfront, but pets will actually need less in a day because it's proper, nutritionally-sound food.
We always try to explain this to people. DISEASE COSTS MONEY. You don't want your pet to cost a fortune, then keep them as healthy as possible.
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You are right, people don't read food labels and they don't follow instructions.
Maybe pressure should be put on pet food companies to make healthier food. The cheaper foods are not the best, but most people won't or can't spend more money. People also don't exercise their pets enough. They also don't exercise themselves enough. There is a real link between human weight issues and pet weight issues.
Catherine