It's not just the people who are riding a tide of unprecedented obesity in the United States. Their pets too are ballooning.
Too much Captain's Dinner.
CREDIT: A. SKELTON
About 25% of cats and dogs in the Western world are now too fat, according to a report released this month by the National Research Council. The 500-page review of pet nutrition studies over the past 25 years reports that this trend has been particularly apparent since the early 1990s. Precise estimates are lacking, but "most practicing veterinarians will tell you that they are seeing more of it now than they did then," says Francis Kallfelz, a veterinary nutritionist at Cornell University who helped compile the report.
Pet obesity tracks the trend in human obesity "pretty well," says nutritionist George C. Fahey Jr. of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. And "heavier people tend to have heavier pets ... often for the same reason" (between-meal snacks).
Urbanization and the tendency to keep pets indoors have also added to the bloat, as has the bewildering array of tempting dishes that target quadrupeds as well as their owners. Fahey notes that the problem is particularly apparent in dog breeds with low energy requirements such as Labradors, cocker spaniels, and sporting breeds. The solution? More fiber for Spot and Puff--and less indulgence on the part of their owners.
