Fat Pets Fat Owners

Fat Pets, Fat Owners follows the journey of three severely overweight animal owners and their pets as they embark on the ultimate weight loss journey together.

The developed world is facing an obesity epidemic – we all know it, and health professionals are onto it in a big way. But what many of us don’t know is that our household pets are getting fat as well: our dogs, cats and hamsters. In many cases not just fat - but huge, obese even. The brutal truth is: fat owners are likely to have fat pets.

In this documentary series we meet three chubby owners and their three very fat pets. We follow their attempts to lose weight together. It’s not going to be an easy journey – there’s grandmother Dorothy and her beloved dog Gizmo whose main love in life is white chocolate mousse. There’s William and his black Labrador Snoop, they love nothing better than to share a take away together, there’s Louise and her

depressed cat Buddy, she admits they both comfort eat.

The six of them head off to Liverpool University, the pets to the University’s Veterinary School, the owners to the University’s Obesity clinic. We follow our contributors for two months to see how they get on with: doggie swimming, cats on treadmills and a low calorie diet regime, under advice from animal behavioural psychologists. And that’s just for the pets…

Packed with facts and information this is a real eye opener to pet owners everywhere.

In July 2009, the series debuted on Sky Real Lives in the UK and achieved well above the slot average.

When Dorothy’s husband left her and her children flew the nest – she saw her dogs as replacement children. As a result, Dorothy spoils her dogs with chocolate mousses, milky bars, and roast dinners. She even ferries them around in a doggy pram!

William’s poor diet didn’t bother him before. But now he has a young family, he’s worried he will go the same way as his own parents, who died young of heart attacks. This is a big wake up call for William and he’s determined to change. William is 23 stone and desperate to lose weight - but both he and his beloved dog Snoop are addicted to Chinese food! The pair hasn’t been on a walk in 6 months!

Louise and Buddy are in denial. She claims they are just big boned! She is killing her beloved cat with kindness, trifles and pork scratchings being a firm offender. Buddy behaves just like a naughty teenager, he’s grumpy, burps and eats anything he can find!