A dog that reached 11 stone was seized by authorities in March 2006 and by January 2007, following a special diet by vets, had lost nearly four stone (25kg). The owners Derek Benton, 62, and his brother David, 53, were found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to the dog after a trial in Ely, Cambs, in January 2007.

That is some diet as well as some weight lost. How do people "abuse" their animals till they reach that condition? Perhaps they could have been trying to "bulk" the dog, or just "tone" it?

I'm pretty sure either way the dog was probably unavailable for comment.

But if that dog had been his child I doubt anything would have been done.

There is the case of Connor McCreaddie who at 8 years old and 14 stone wanted to be siezed by the authorities. However for animals it seems as of the authorities seize the animal first and ask questions later.

I feel bad for that dog. As a human being how can someone look at that picture and actually think that their dog is healthy and nothing is wrong?

They probably just assume that it's a genetic thing, the same excuse overweight people use for themselves.

You mean he is "Big Boned".

If you watch the video the dog when 11 stone could be mistaken for a fat pig or a walrus. The vet should have alerted the authorities as the brothers saw the vet a couple of times until they could not afford to see the vet and instead fed the dog painkillers and food.

Labs are typically fat dogs. I have yet to see a fit lab. My guess is that the owners honestly didn't know the dog was fat. Things just don't suddenly become obese overnight. It takes time and gradual changes. You have to actually work hard to become obese, as silly as that sounds. So my guess is that the owners honestly didn't know the dog was that big because they see it everyday.

But I do agree. Had this been a child, it is very doubtful that anyone would do anything, or even suggest anything. It's funny we live in a world where we can freely talk about abuse of animals, but yet when a human child is involved, most people do nothing about it.

One day on the local news I heard a man beat a kitten. On lookers were so shocked that one of them went up to the man, grabbed the kitten, blocked the car and called the cops. The man got something like 1 months in jail and had to pay a heavy fine. And then I heard another story, a mother in the parking lot with a fussy child who she beaten beyond normal spanking. The child was screaming from the intense pain, but yet people passed by like it was nothing.

I disagree. Genetics play a very important role in your weight and body structure. We are living in a world where we set pseudo-standards in weight. We live and die by the weight. Ironically, obesity been a problem right around the same time the bathroom scale became common. With this said, weight means nothing. Sure being 100s of pounds overweight is something to look into, but generally speaking, your genetics is going to dictate your size and structure no matter how much you fight it. Look at your parents, that's going to be you in the future whether you like it or not. One can argue it's the diet within the family, but time and time again adopted children (as well as twins who were separated) proved that they look more like their biological parents (or twin self) than the family the live in.

This is good news.

There is a difference between being

- fat or overweight
- obese
- morbidly obese as the dog was

When I lost weight even people who see me every day knew I had lost weight. It did not happen overnight but people still notice. The owners say they overfed it when they could no longer afford the vet bills. That in my opinion should have justified time behind the slammer/community service for them.