This cat (obviously) can’t maintain this weight without the owner grossly overfeeding it, Is this tantamount to animal abuse? Should the cat be taken away from them and given to a home where they won’t overfeed it?
Yes.
When you own a pet you assume responsibility for it’s well being and safety. Many pets will instinctively eat as much as they are given, they can’t self-regulate (much like myself at the Chinese buffet). I couldn’t open the link, but I’d guess the owner was feeding the cat crappy food, as well as way too much of it. Unless it’s some freak glandular problem, it’s abuse.
Yep. Poor cat.
Although, I couldn’t help but laugh at the typo of “Fattest CAR Ever” on the title above the video.
That cat looks like Garfield to me, especially in his early days before he lost weight. 
I agree, though, that the owners are responsible for a cat’s well-being.
I have to say I agree, barring some kind of disease that would make the cat fat despite not eating that much.
Poor kitty. Like others have said, when you take an animal you are responsible for it’s well-being. Just because your pets enjoys something or wants something, doesn’t mean that it is good for them.
Some pet owners seem to think that because treats make an animal happy they are increasing their quality of life, but that isn’t necessarily true. A dog might want chocolate, but it can kill them in a large enough quantity. My diabetic cat wants to eat people food, but I don’t give it to him because it will make him sick and, in the long run, lead to a poor quality of life then probably early death.
Some people just can’t say no when somebody cries for something - the animal cries for food so they give it as a quick fix because they feel bad, but in the long run it’s no good. Sometimes you have to do things that make you feel bad to keep your animals healthy. No animals like getting shots or going to the vet, but you take them anyway to keep them healthy. I hated giving my cat shots the first couple of times I had to give him insulin, but the alternative is a lot worse in the long run (I don’t feel bad anymore, though, he takes it like a man!).
And I am such a sick person, but the ad for a free trip to New Orleans below made me giggle.
-Lil
I agree that it’s abusive to let a cat get that fat, but would like to point out that as they age (and especially follwoing spaying or neutering), some cats can pack the pounds on even if you don’t overindulge them.
Two years ago, I adopted a three year-old neutered male. He was pretty big (17 pounds), but he has a big frame. My neighborhood has roaming dogs and heavy traffic nearby, so I converted him to an indoor cat. (He had occasionally gone outdoors in his former home.)
Result: without outdoor exercise, he’s now weighing in at 22 pounds, which is definitely overweight for him. I feed him no treats, only dry cat food, never more than the recommended amount (often less, and he doesn’t always eat all of it).
My vet has recommended special diet food, which I am considering. Also, I have another neutered male cat who eats the identical diet and is of normal weight.
Lawdy…reminds me of my father-in-law’s 2 cats.
I swear they must weigh 20 lbs apiece. He spoils them absolutely rotten.
The worst of it is that he took in my poor, petite Daisi when we had to find her a new home because we couldn’t keep her from soiling the carpets in our apartment.
She’s a full grown Manx that has never weighed more than 4-5 lbs and is pretty much a vegetarian. You could put lobster rolled up in steak in front of that cat and she’d go straight for the dry Friskies.
And he worries about her weight. :smack:
I asked him, “Can you feel her ribs?”
FIL: “Yes.”
“Can you see her ribs?”
FIL: “No…”
“Then she’s just right. Let her alone.” :rolleyes:
Barring a medical problem of some kind, that level of obesity is definitely avoidable. I know some cats can put on weight easily, but to get to that level you have to ignore their gaining for a long, long, long time.
My cat was on this special food for his urinary tract (poor baby had a bout of FUS) that I had to start giving him not much of because it was causing him to start packing on the pounds. Not that I was starving him, but I switched from free feeding to small measured amounts. He didn’t like it much, but he didn’t have a choice.
SHAZAM!! That’s one fat cat!
Oh yeah, that’s animal abuse.
That’s a big cat. Yes, it’s absolutely abuse. I think there’s some kind of denial going on with certain cat owners. A friend of mine has a bunch of cats, and when I visit I always comment that one of her cats is grossly overweight. She always denies it. I could maybe understand if the cat was eating the other cat’s food or something that was hard for her to control. But she doesn’t say that, she just says the cat’s not overweight, which is obviously false.
Poor kitty. I had to turn off the video; it made me sad and angry.
I can’t imagine that the cat got that fat without having something wrong with him. Most cats do stop eating when they’re full, even if there’s still food in the bowl.
My mother used to have a cat that was grossly obese. The poor creature died young. My mom tried putting him on a diet several times, but she said that he meowed pitifully for more food. Well, sure he did, mom. When I was a kid I hollered for lots of things that you didn’t let me have because they weren’t good for me.
I was so pissed off and unhappy with my mother. She killed a sweet cat just because she couldn’t tolerate the yowly consequences of saying “no” when he demanded more goodies.
Yeah, that’s pretty sad. There’s no need for a cat to weigh 40+ lbs.
I thought my FIL’s was bad, he has a 20 pound cat. The cat is an outdoor cat, has strictly regulated meals when he comes inside, but was just always huge. We think maybe other households are feeding him. That or he eats more rodents than we see. He recently got worms, and has started slimming down. The vet says it was probably the best thing for him. He seems more lively now.
My two cats, the biggest one is almost 10 lbs, the smaller one is a petite not-quite-7 lbs. They also have strictly regulated meals, high quality diet food, both indoor only cats, but our bigger one seems to be gaining weight anyway. And she’s the most active of the two! Time to add more play time. They get very, very few treats, too - when I say once in a blue moon, even that might be too often. They don’t care much, since they never developed a real taste for them. They don’t eat human food, either. (though when she was a kitten, I used to bring Sebastian home a can of sardines from the factory as a little treat. She hasn’t had those in over two years.)
Anyway, I ramble. 40 lbs is much, much too big, and there’s no need of that. That poor thing is a walking heart attack. 
This is so sad. Reminds me of my friend’s mom. She has a dog whose diet consists of various and sundry McDonald’s treats because “she doesn’t have time to get dog food” or some such lame excuse. The dog is grossly overweight and even has trouble walking sometimes. Friend’s mom doesn’t understand what’s wrong with this.
GT
Sitting in the vet’s waiting room this morning, I saw a beagle that looked like a beach ball with four legs and a head. I didn’t know beagles could get that fat – a few more pounds and it won’t be able to sit, because its belly will be too large for the front legs to touch the ground. Definitely animal abuse.
She should lose custody of that dog. Like others have said, you take on the responsibility for an animal’s health when you get a pet, and that includes making the time to get the proper food for it.
Dammit, this subject makes me so mad. Overweight pets are not cute; they’re being allowed to hurt themselves. Put me firmly in the “animal abuse” camp.
I have a cat that should weigh around 19 pounds - that’s an educated guess on my vet’s part because he hasn’t weighed that little since he was about 10 months old. He varies between 21 and 25 pounds. His last vet visit he was at 23 pounds. He has been on a diet since he was four months old - when he weighed a whopping 8 pounds (his two sisters were merely 3 pounds and his own mother was 7!)
He not only gets no treats and no free feeding, but he’s on very expensive, high quality diet food. And get this - he is getting 1/4 of the recommended amount!
Furthermore he is encouraged to exercise regularly - his favorite bed and his water are placed so that he has to jump to get to them, his favorite toys are out all the time, he gets his laser toy exercise daily. He also comes with me out to the back yard and walks around with me every day as I water and tend the garden.
Biggie (coincidence only, he was named before he was even born!) is just a fat cat. I’m convinced he does have some sort of glandular problem, maybe even something like acromegaly (because he is simply a huge cat - his head is the size of a softball) but since few pet owners care about such things it’s expensive to investigate and treat anything out of the ordinary, and it’s hard to convince vets that maybe something unusual is going on. He just turned 6 and I am constantly in fear of him dropping dead of a heart attack.
Since y’all can diagnose obese cats on the spot without even taking a medical history or interviewing the owner, maybe y’all can give me some more pointers about how to get him down to 19 pounds.
I am really quite dismayed that y’all are all judging this owner despite the fact that you have NO background information.