BBHS Affects on Pet Obesity?

It appears that the Round Rock, TX, animal control officers coerced an owner into surrendering 13 animals on Thursday under threat of animal cruelty charges!  Of course, with that comes the threat that you will be named, flamed, and defamed (NFD) worldwide via the internet before the hearing where the teeny, tiny court judge will rubber stamp the seizure by ordering forfeiture of the animals and all an appeal will get you is another feeding frenzy of being named, flamed, and defamed (NFD) before another small judge rubber stamps the previous decision.  As this was on a Thursday, that first hearing would most likely have been on Monday (at the latest).

"Princess, for example, is very thin and underweight,” said Amanda Ryan-Smith, director of development and marketing at AHS [Austin Humane Society]. “She hasn't really gotten the nutrition that she needed when she was with her previous owners."  Are you sure she's underweight?  Are you really, really sure?  I watched the video several times and looked at the 3 pictures on the photo tab.  If those are the most underweight ones, them I'm thinking you might be wrong.  They look just about right to me.  Seems to be a new trend of accusing owners of underfeeding their animals and I think it's a bit suspect.

Princess is a Chihuahua so let's look at a couple of pictures of healthy fit Chihuahuas.

Those dogs in the video and photos look pretty much like these 2 healthy, fit Chihuahuas to me!  Well, maybe AHS could use a chart.  They could find one here.  5 categories: Emaciated, Thin, Optimal, Fat, and Obese.  From what I could see, Princess and the others looked like Optimals to me.  A little hard to tell, especially with a big hand wrapped around Princess but still...  Remember from my last post that these are 2-4 pound dogs, or should be.  (How'd I end up doing Chihuahuas 2 in a row?  Are they especially in demand right now?)

Yeppers, I think this deal is suspect.  We've become a FAT nation and I think we anthropomorphize that our animals want to stuff themselves just like us.  Obesity is a HUGE problem in humans AND pets; “44 percent of dogs and 57 percent of cats are overweight or obese”.  “The U.S. has the fattest pets in the world, and the social and psychological pressure to ignore weight problems is huge.” Id.  Chunky butt humans tend to be in denial about their own weight issues and try to justify them; they tend to think pets should be a little on the “husky” side too.  WRONG.  Excess weight adds to their medical problems in a multitude of ways.

The problem is so pervasive that this chart for animals has been modified.  Optimal becomes "moderate" and fat becomes "stout".  For those of you who aren't old enough, this is how we humans got the stupid idea that fat wasn't so bad.  We simply started calling chubby kids "stout"!  Isn't it bad enough that we fattened us up?  Do we have to fatten up the dogs too???

Quite a significant percentage, maybe a majority, of women in these animal activist positions seem to be what my friends call Broad Butts.  Got it?  Women with wide backsides.  I watched the AC folks at the Houston parking garage waddling around trying to corner a bobcat and I do mean they were waddling.  It seemed the best they could muster was a slow trot!  I so wish I could give you a link but click2houston.com has shortened it to a 24 second blurb.  Maybe the Houston AC team objected to their wide backsides waddling around being permanently memorialized!

Interestingly, the entire Round Rock, TX, animal control team is female.  Check them out.  They are by no means the broad buttedness of the Houston AC team in the parking garage but do I see a nice double chin on their supervisor and a hint of double chins to come on each and every one of the officers?  Well, Ms. Amanda Ryan-Smith is the one on camera saying Princess is underweight, undernourished.  I took the liberty of making a still for memorializing her here with Princess.

Is that a double or triple chin there?  Might there be a broad backside to go with it?  I'm just asking but maybe it's my glasses.

Now, I don't give a flying flip how much humans want to fatten themselves up.  And, if you want to fatten up the animals that you own, that's your business too; you'll be the one dealing with the resulting health problems for you both.  But the moment you start telling others that they have to fatten up their animals (or take them down to unreasonably low weights) under threat of being named, flamed, defamed (NFD) summarily deprived of their animals in Kangaroo Court for animal cruelty or by coercion but often never even charged with a crime; then I give a great big damn!

I've decided to name this phenomenon.  I'll call it the Broad Butt Humaniac Syndrome, BBHS for short.

Or maybe AHS just has problems getting their retail stock of small dogs.  I did check their website yesterday to find they only had 1 single small dog on hand.  Interestingly, they have 4 sizes.  Sure looks to me like they've created an "XL" specifically so they could push some of the "large" dogs into the "medium" category.  No measurements or weights given, of course :)

But back to the 13 Chihuahuas...  "Other problems included roundworms, neurological issues, heart conditions, hip problems. [Austin Urban Vet Center ’s Dr. Erin] Homburg said she treated the team just in time."  Roundworms?  Seriously?  Every dog in Texas is harboring them, even the dogs who get dosed with pesticides on a monthly basis are harboring the blinking things!  But WOW, you "treated" "neurological issues, heart conditions, hip problems" in under 24 hours?  That's DAMNED impressive, they're so lucky to have a miracle worker like you available to waive your magic wand [snicker, snicker].  I guess you must have since surely you wouldn't lie or even fudge and 10 (or more) of these dogs will be on the fund raising auction block tomorrow (you can bet some of those over sized "medium" dogs will be there too).

"Some of them, unfortunately, probably would have passed away from their conditions," she, the veterinarian, added.  I'm sure, about the time their natural life spans ended :)  Oh, when you get a chance doc, you might want to check patellas, they seem to be more prone to luxating patellas than hip problems.  Hey, I understand, a veterinarian not familiar with Shibas made a similar misdiagnosis of one of my girls and it only cost her pain and me money.  At least you're a freebie.  'Course that doesn't take care of the animal's pain, does it?

"Some" [1-3, MAYBE] "of the dogs will need to stay under the care of AHS for an extended period due to greater health problem."  "problem"? singular???  OK, I got it.  ONE dog may need to stay longer.  "At least 10 of them will be available for adoption this Saturday..."

Underweight, undernourished during growth, and with other health problems but being turned over as inventory in about 50 hours.  You solved their nutritional deficiencies, got them up to weight, medical issues "treated", and temperament testing done in under one day apparently.  Damn, I am impressed with AHS' rehab skills [snicker, snicker].

Y'all do know that Chihuahua's can be problematic if not properly socialized when young?  "Suspicious by nature, Chihuahuas need extensive exposure to people and to unusual sights and sounds. Otherwise their natural suspicion can become shrillness or downright nastiness. Many Chihuahuas will put on a display of excited ferociousness (in other words, they pitch a fit!) when other people or animals approach what they consider to be "theirs." Which, for some Chihuahuas, extends to the entire street. It sounds funny, but it's not, because if you don't curtail it, your Chihuahua may end up suspicious of everyone in the world, which is a short step to biting them when they unwittingly instrude [sic] on 'his space.'"  AHS is sending them out the door in 2 days.  Hm, I wonder:

  1. I didn't see any indications of the negative behavior just described so did the "previous owner" (very probably, oh, my, "breeder") do one fandamntastic job of socializing these Chihuahuas OR
  2. Is AHS sending out potential time bombs to new homes and lying their butts off?

"While the effects of their medical neglect" HOOEY and CRAP, I just plain don't believe that after looking at them.

"and inbreeding could continue throughout life..."  And there's the crux of this case.  All breeders, all owners of unaltered animals, are EVIL, especially to the BBHS crowd.  They see mutts as preferable, probably because being Anglo-Saxons (and the vast majority of BBHS are Anglo-Saxon) inherently makes us human "mutts"/half breeds and there’s a serious tendency to resent those with “better breeding”.  Any attempt to give an animal a better life by paying attention to who mates with whom is utterly unacceptable.  Power, control, dictating to others when one lacks self control, oh so many things play into these animal activists' motives.

So, what actually set this case off?  I'd guess some nasty neighbor whining about barking which tipped them off that there were dogs to be thieved for their own motives and profits.  You should all be ashamed and I know Karma will take care of each and every one of you sooner or later.  I could roll around on the floor laughing at the absurdity of it all except that I know there's a "previous owner" out there who was deprived of rights and property and coerced and abused by all of those involved in this bumblef***; who will likely suffer and grieve in relative silence rather than risk being "outed" as an "animal abuser" when there's certainly nothing yet presented to the public that would support that allegation in any way.

Chihuahua owner (as far as I'm concerned, you are the CURRENT owner of these dogs), if you happen to stumble across this entry, please accept my deepest sympathies for your loss.  I understand that it is the equivalent of (or worse than) losing these 13 Chihuahuas to death.  Most of my audience will understand that to.

  • New Acronyms:
  • NFD = Named, Flamed, and Defamed
  • BBHS = Broad Butt Humaniac Syndrome

2010.05.15 Addendum.  I might should have also disclosed that I'm pretty hostile about fattening up pets because I did it for years!  Although my elder Shiba already had a knee problem, at a minimum, I didn't help it by fattening her up.  I may have created the primary reason she blew out that knee and ACL.  So, unless you're inclined to cough up several grand in medical fees and up for watching you precious ones suffer through the damages, health problems, and PAIN (not all of which can be fixed with pills); then DON'T fatten them up and, if they are fat, put them on a diet ASAP.  I also hold a couple of tippy toe veterinarians partially responsible for downplaying the issue by saying they "could stand to lose a little weight" instead of telling me what I finally overheard one say in the hall which was "grossly obese".  I put them on diets immediately but I didn't get that weight off fast enough...

Want some more incentive?  When you start feeding your animals better, you may start eating better yourself.  I know I did!  Once you're automatically feeding your animals better, it just becomes a habit to pay attention to what you're eating too.  I would never have done it for myself but for them?  Oh, yeah!

Go Back



Comment