Pets fed on junk food and alcohol face obesity crisis

A BULLDOG addicted to sausages and a cat with a “monstrous” appetite are among a group of Scottish pets taking part in an annual UK slimming competition.

Junk food and fatty treats are fuelling a “tragic” obesity crisis in domestic animals, with pets in Scotland worst affected, according to the People’s Dispensary for Sick A nimals (PDSA ).

Of the estimated 18 million pets across the UK, some 2.5 million dogs (one in three) and more than two million cats (one in four) are currently overweight, the PDSA claimed.

The charity said it was due to owners sharing their own unhealthy eating habits with their pets in a “well-intentioned but misguided attempt to make them happy”.

To tackle the problem, the charity is launching its eighth annual PDSA Pet Fit Club — and has already identified some of the heaviest pets to take part.

Pepi the cat from Dundee, bulldogA ngus from Edinburgh and Lucky the cat, also from the capital, are being put on diets to help them shed up to half their body weight.

Staff at the PDSA Dundee centre said Pepi is one of the heaviest cats they have ever seen at one and a half stone.

His owner A lison A rmstrong said he refuses to eat only two meals a day and has a “monstrous” appetite, even trying to eat handbag straps and computer cables.

The seven-year-old, who has been diagnosed with diabetes, is now being put on a “really strict diet”.

Ms A rmstrong said: “I’ve had him about two years now and he was big when I got him but nothing like this. He loves chicken and fish, and he loves yoghurt, pretty much any flavour except vanilla.

“But he can’t steal much food now, for the simple reason that he’s so big he can’t jump up on the counter.”

Eight-year-old A ngus is “morbidly obese” at 4.7st, according to the charity.

A nn Ward, who owns 1.2st Lucky, said she is responsible for her pet’s weight and she has always let the cat have what she wants as she was previously abandoned.

She said: “Lucky had been badly neglected throughout the first year of her life. I think she’d been thrown odd scraps now and then, but she was in a terrible state.”

Pictures: Darren Casey/PA. Above: potential candidate for the PDSA Pet Fit Club, border collie Zeb from Hull, with nurse Helen Darnell. Left: nurse Amanda Shearsby with overweight cat Lucky, and Pepi from Dundee.