The Rights of Fat Animals: Abuse or owner and animal's choice?

Yesterday I viewed a new Taboo documentary on fat people and body image.
To my surprise fat people are now forming civil rights groups, to end "discrimination".
While everyone seems to agree that stereotyping and name-calling are unhelpful, medical experts are horrified that fat people bordering on morbid obesity are calling it a "healthy lifestyle".

Now I see pics of morbidly obese animals, and I have heard of people who were threatened with animal abuse charges if their pets didn't lose wieght.
Do children who are obese get similar protection from parents who overfeed them?
Are pets given special rights to be slim and healthy?
Unless animals are force-fed (like some farmed life-stock - who seem to have no rights), perhaps it is also their choice to be chubby?

Although the western images are slowly filtering to Africa (where being large was considered attractive), we don't quite have body-image activists yet for obese people.
What did strike me as strange was that women are judged more harshly for being obese than men.
What was also interesting is that many obese women blame their condition on crash diets, which are encouraged by the media. With the yo-yo effect they regain extra weight after every diet.

What about pets?
Who decides?

reply to post by halfoldman


As far as I am concerned Grossly fat animals is a response to fear of the idiot in PETA. If you keep your animals at a reasonable weight (a bit of rib) you have your animals confiscated and your butt thrown in jail!

Here in the USA the only time a bit of rib is acceptable is when it is accompanied by a bikini. click

it's neither in my opinion. everytime I bake a lasagna and set it on the counter to cool off, within seconds my cat swoops in and eats it all. I try to put my cat on diets, usually starting on mondays, but within days he has broken it. my cat also watches way too much TV. But I can't control him, he's his own person

How the heck do you over feed your animal? shove food down its throat while its kicking and clawing to get away?

I currently have two cats although I have had many animals during my life. I keep their food bowl filled at all times, they always shave access to food. Both of my cats are lean. They instinctively know when to eat and how much to eat. They nibble off and on through out the day. My friend how ever has 3 cats and feeds them 3 meals a day. 2 are a healthy weight but one has a weight problem and they are constantly trying to get her to lose weight.Through one method or another and they monitor and control her food intake very closely. So what does this mean?

Well, my green iguana is fat...but I think it's considered a status symbol in the iguana culture.

Originally posted by Electric Crown
it's neither in my opinion. everytime I bake a lasagna and set it on the counter to cool off, within seconds my cat swoops in and eats it all. I try to put my cat on diets, usually starting on mondays, but within days he has broken it. my cat also watches way too much TV. But I can't control him, he's his own person

To ansewr the OP... I think it's irresponsible for a pet owner to over-feed their cat/dog/horse/mouse, but I don't think it's really anything that deserves criminal punishment. That is, unless the animal is being abused or purposely over-fed or under fed.

reply to post by halfoldman


Seems to me that if the animals were living without the influence of humans, their weight would be normal.
It is definitely the owners responsibility to feed an animal what it requires, not in excess.

I'm no zoologist, but I'm sure overweight animals are not normal.


The animal sees food and eats.
Some eat more than others, in regards to how much food is within sight.
I know of dogs that just keep eating no matter how much food is out.

reply to post by havok

Come to think of it, I know humans like that too!
Wish I could remember the program (so many on these weight issues now, seeing that the West is in a major health crisis due to food), but it showed kindergarten kids, and some stopped eating at a point and others just shoveled down whatever was dished up.
The program argued this was genetic.
In past ages where food was scarce the shoveling group actually had a survival (and hence breeding) advantage.
Domesticated animals are likely very much the same.
Some will stop eating, others won't.

What is even worse: dieting is interpreted by the shoveling group as starvation times, so they save more calories afterwards in case another famine comes around.

People are more active over obese animals because that's a less sensitive issue than children. Something that also must be kept in mind is that obese animals are almost always so morbidly obese that it's horrifying. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of media outlets do stories on overweight people and portray people who are probably perfectly healthy as obese.

People seem to think that obesity starts around 23 or 24% body fat when it actually starts at about 30%. People also seem to want to lump people who have 27 or 28% body fat in with people who have 40 or 45% body fat. Yes, 27 or 28% elevates their health risks, but no more so than a normal weighing person who smokes or drinks regularly. Also, 25 and 27% can be the difference of less than 10 pounds, especially if you're a woman.

I personally don't like talks about obesity in children because there are so many factors. People use the BMI scale to calculate obesity. However, the BMI doesn't take frame size into account, or muscularity, or the overall physical development of the child (for example, a girl who develops breasts early may have 5 or 10 pounds more weight that she cannot help simply because she developed earlier than normal). The child may have a gland problem or a slow metabolism. The family may be ignorant of proper nutritional guidelines. The schools certainly aren't helping with their lunches that have horrifyingly high calorie counts. As for the exercise part, many children may not have the chance to exercise that much. We can't all live in the suburbs and have a white picket fence and acre of land.

As for getting organized, they frankly should. Discrimination is discrimination no matter how much it disgusts you.

reply to post by gnosticquasar

Interesting post.
It doesn't disgust me personally at all, it just surprised me, because in African culture it hasn't come to the point where anti-discrimination groups are necessary. We do have rising rates of obesity, and the medical experts are concerned, but on the other hand conditions like bulimia and anorexia are also becoming known with the Western media's ideal of slimness.

IMHO as far as animals are concerned, if its domesticated and only eats what you give YOU are responsible. If your animal is an outside animal, there is nothing you can do, they have to "catch" what they get, which helps their weight.

As far as people, we live in a "slim" world, if you live by the means and statutes of the goober rich, if you like to eat and know what to eat, your ok, and if you have 8 cheeseburgers from McD's in one sitting, well then you have to have a discussions with yourself.

Loving to eat, and loving yourself are IMHO 2 different things.

Peace, NRE.

If all the food in the world was shared equally, there would be no starved people and animals, and no obese people and animals.

But we all know the world is not fair.

But one thing we can and must do for our kids - prevent childhood obesity before it occurs if we love our kids and care about their quality of life.

Originally posted by catwhoknows
If all the food in the world was shared equally, there would be no starved people and animals, and no obese people and animals.

But we all know the world is not fair.

But one thing we can and must do for our kids - prevent childhood obesity before it occurs if we love our kids and care about their quality of life.

I completely agree, but now a days parent want to be friends, and want their kids to have all the things they want. I saw a documentary about a school, that banned vending machine's with cookies and mountain dew, and the parents during lunch were giving their kids through the gates cookies, and soda, because they thought that the "system" was being "unfair". That's scary.

Peace, NRE.

reply to post by NoRegretsEver


Yes, that is bad.

Have you watched Jamie Oliver, the Brit chef, taking on American schools?

He won a lot of support in the town and succeeded in changing their eating habits.

But he is only one man versus a huge (lol- not funny I know) problem.

Nice questions you’re asking.
I’ll stick to the ones based on animals and leave the questions of children and obesity up to ‘Big Sister’ (gag).

Ok, here’s one of the loves of my life.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8775e6e063bf.jpg[/atsimg]

Her name is/was Karlo - (When green iguana’s are young it’s terribly difficult to know if they’re masculine or feminine, so thus the Karlo).

When (now) Karlitta was around 10 months old she started to eat - and I mean EAT!
NO more finicky reptile here!
She just went nuts over her greens, and zucchini? I couldn’t get near her without being verily attacked when she smelled warm zucchini headed for her cage.

After a while I started to get worried. Dang but she was looking HUGE.

Not living in an area where there are any veterinarians for green iguanas I studies up on line.
Hmmm, maybe ‘he’ is a ‘she’ and getting ready to lay some eggs.
But really, come on, she was HUGE.
And for a good reason.

My tiny little lady dropped 32 - yes you read that correctly - 32 eggs - more than her own body weight.
She laid around 5, I thought that was that, until the next day and this is what she popped out with!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a5bca577b61f.jpg[/atsimg]

When she was finished I thought she was dead.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d28ceae4fe39.jpg[/atsimg]

My point? SHE KNEW what she needed and if I’d of gone ahead and started reducing her calories I bet she’d not have made it alive out of her first egg laying debut.

So, listen to your pets and follow your instincts and when possible always consult a vet.
If you feel your animal is ‘fat’ in an ‘unhealthy way’ - I’d suggest giving smaller amounts of food more often so your little ‘cuddly’ doesn’t feel too neglected.

And please, don’t live vicariously through your pet.
If you’ve got a weight problem deal with that on your own, don’t give your pet anything and everything it wants because you can’t have everything and everything you want.

Fat as an animals choice? Why not. They have likes and dislikes just like we do. But we’re in a position to care and love them - that doesn’t mean we have to mold them into an ‘idea’ pet but that doesn’t mean we should allow them to become so rotund they can’t chase a toy mouse or retrieve a stick.

peace

reply to post by silo13


You can usually identify by their pores on their legs and the size of their jowls. Very nice looking girl there.


My green is a female too, when she started developing eggs, I had her xrayed because she also stopped eating as much and was still fat as hell. She laid a batch of 27...infertile. She's going on 8 or 9 now. BTW avocado makes them gain fast.

I also have a rhino iguana, but it's still too young and hyper to get fat.