Your Cat Is Too Fat Mrs Spratt

This is not an accusation that Mrs Spratt is likely to hear from her vet despite the fact that half of all cats living with her are probably either obese or overweight. Why? Well the problem is that Mrs Spratt herself is also overweight.. and her vet doesn't like to mention it.

Conjecture? No. It is the conclusion of a report by Hill's Pet Nutrition following a poll of veterinary delegates attending the European Pet Obesity Conference, at The Wellcome Trust in London.

It emerged from the conference that delegates thought pet obesity is reflective of the current spiralling human obesity epidemic. Hill's reports that 78% of veterinary professionals believe that obese pets tend to have obese owners and 80% of vets are reluctant to mention the condition to overweight owners for fear of offending them.

Almost 50% of pets are obese or overweight. Among the delegates, 55% of veterinary professionals knew of pets that had to be euthanased due to developing diseases associated with obesity.