Australia's RSPCA tackles the rise of Pet Obesity

[LynneSin]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060524/od_nm/australia_pets_dc_1;_ylt=AhiX_rrw8OV9EZBf.kZQzdjmWMcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--

Loving your pets to death

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia is a nation of pet lovers but it may be loving its animals to death with pet owners passing on rising levels of obesity by overfeeding their cats and dogs, the country's main animal welfare body says.


Despite its image as a sports-mad country full of fit, sun-bronzed youth, Australia in reality is battling the bulge and challenging the United States as the world's fattest nation. The problem now extends to household pets.

Obesity rates for Australians have doubled over the past 20 years, with 62 percent of men and 45 percent of women now deemed overweight or obese.

The same trend applies to household pets, with an increase in the number of overweight cats and dogs being dealt with by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and even one case of an obese pet mouse.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. Holy crap! That thing's so fat it looks fake!

That's animal abuse.

[LynneSin]

2. I'm trying to figure out what they were feeding it to get that big

I have owned hamsters and you always put a wheel in their cage for excericizing. I'm guessing that the owner of this pet simply forgot to buy a wheel

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. Mine climbed the cage itself so much that...

even without a hamster wheel, I doubt it could get like that. It's not like I limited it's food either. Always had food and treats in the cage.