When dogs and cats get really, really overweight, it’s hard not to be furious with their owners for overfeeding them so much.
After all, just a few extra pounds put a strain on pets’ bodies. Any more will shave years off their own lives. Then there are the animals who weigh multiple times what their normal weight should be — a death penalty without intervention. That’s what Honey the beagle was facing when at her heaviest, she weighed a shocking 68 pounds. This pup’s situation, however, was a bit more complicated than intentional overfeeding.
Honey was over three times the normal weight for a female beagle when in June 2017, she was surrendered to the SPCA of Niagara County in New York. She could barely move and had been sitting in her own urine and feces at home.
Her elderly proprietor had dementia and would often forget that she’d already fed Honey. She would feed the dog over and over, leading to Honey’s massive weight gain. Sadly, the woman dropped her off at the shelter to be euthanized at simply six years old, persuaded her quality of life was so terrible that this was the most humane option.
But thankfully, the shelter employees didn’t agree. They immediately cleaned her up, get her started on a diet and exercising plan, and put her on medications for hypothyroidism. In the first week, she lost five pounds.
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