Friday, May 15, 2009

Fatties

Not the dog in question below but a fattie nevertheless


As reported in The Guardian, U.K., a man has been charged and found guilty of overfeeding his dog to the point where it got dangerously overweight.

From Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, cabinet member for environment:

All dogs, but particularly border collies like Taz, need a good healthy diet and lots of exercise. Keeping a large dog shut indoors in a small space and overfeeding is a form of cruelty, and while our animal welfare team are happy to offer advice and information to dog owners, they will not hesitate to use the Animal Welfare Act to prosecute those who clearly have no intention of properly looking after their pet.

I read stuff like that and I think our animal welfare laws here in Canada, where you can still hammer your dogs to death and not get convicted of animal cruelty, must have been written by someone from the paleolithic period as he was clubbing potential mates over the head with his hockey stick.

In the accompanying photos that go along with the above article, there are some massive dogs and cats and I know how unhealthy it is for them but when I see those pics, all I can think about is giving those dogs a squish.

3 comments:

LynnO said...

That HAS to have been photoshopped! (not the same dog in both photos either...different markings!)
I'm a groomer and it would take a fork lift to put that dog on that table. I have trouble picking up bull dogs that are NOT overweight! (They wiggle and snort so much that I can't catch my breath from giggling, and it doesn't help that they tend to try and lick you on the mounth when you giggle.)
But the border collie in question is not as overweight as some (other) breeds I've seen.
Around here those with multiple dogs tend to keep them all leaner (sometimes too many, and sometimes too lean? IMO) Maybe instead of pet limit laws we should suggest that owners of fatties get a few more?! Nah, I've see whole households full of them. My critters do pretty well, but I wish somebody could ration my kibble!

Fred said...

LynnO, good eye. The two dogs do look different which leads me to suspect the authenticity of the "after" shot as well. If the "after" shot is photoshopped, though, someone did a pretty good job.

Danielsan said...

Having used Photoshop professionally for over 20 years, and worked on the Photoshop team at Adobe, I can guarantee you that shot is fake. The telltale signs are the "softness" of focus around his/her middle. That indicates that pixels have been "made up" to create this.

Also, from what little I know about dog physiology, it would seem like the weight would also be distributed down the dog's legs making him/her basically unable to stand. The stance of the dog doesn't match his "weight".