Sharing your “people food” with your pet dog is, arguably, one of the greatest joys of dog ownership. Seeing their little eyes light up as they realise that their favourite grub is heading their way is utterly adorable and always seems like the best way to let them know that you love them.
Unfortunately, as all good things usually have consequences, too many table scraps and “people food” treats are the leading cause of obesity in pets. In fact, the problem of dog obesity has got so bad in the USA that out of the 77.5 million dogs living with American families, 35 million are deemed to be overweight and a shocking 6.7 million are clinically obese.
a dog eating bananas (Photo credit: viZZZual.com)
Even though your pet pooch may seem to be carrying their excess baggage well, additional weight can put a huge strain on their delicate insides. Recent Research from the Purina PetCare study found that, on average, overweight pets live two years less than the average lifespan of their species.
To help you realise how easy it is for your dog to gain weight, the animal loving employees at Chemist Direct have put together a simple infographic, showing you just how much weight your dog could gain from eating table scraps, as well as how much exercise it would take to burn it off again.
We would like to thank Chemist Direct, the UKs largest online chemist for their excellent info-graph
