Obesity Epidemic Among Cats

Of the 9 million cats we keep as pets in England, over one third of them are overweight, double the amount that it was 20 years ago. With the wet summers in Britain mice are being driven indoors and with many middle-class householders too embarrassed to call exterminators the situation gets worse and worse. Many cat owners are also disappointed in the lack of help from their pets in this matter too, as those cats who are becoming overweight are losing the energy and effort to hunt becoming too unfit and finding no desire to chase a mouse. Cats are naturally used to hunting prey such as birds and mice for food, but with their new lounging lifestyle domestic cats who are fed too much and spending a lot of time indoors are losing their instinctive nature to hunt, instead opting to lay around watching the world go by until next meal time. With the increase in mice infestations due to the ever increasing food waste we produce, England is in need of a good mouser from their cats. If cats were not over pampered and fed too much, we would have less of an obesity epidemic among our pets and also benefit from a lack of mouse infestations in the homes.





Source: Daily Mail – David Derbyshire – November 2008