36 pound cat found in San Antonio will undergo weight loss program - mySanAntonio.com

Photo By Lisa Krantz/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

SAN ANTONIO - A female cat named Butterball that weighed a whopping 36 pounds when Animal Care Services took her in earlier this month will undergo a dietary program designed to help obese cats lose weight.

Officers with Bexar County Animal Control Services picked up Butterball on Nov. 11 in the 2200 block of Mobeetie Trail on the West Side of Bexar County after a person said the animal bit them.

When weighed hours later, Butterball came in at 36 pounds, a record for San Antonio Animal Care Services, spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said. That's roughly equivalent to a 5'9' human male that weighs 633 pounds, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention.

The average domestic cat weighs eight to 10 pounds, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention.

'It's not cute, it's not a novelty,' Norwood said Wednesday. 'She's suffering.'

Caring for obese cats isn't a brand new task for the department. Officials in April rescued a pair of obese cats - Melvin, a 26-pound Tomcat, and Marvin, which weighs 20 pounds - after being neglected.

Officials haven't determined exactly what caused Butterball's weight to balloon, said Bethany Colonnese, adoption supervisor for Animal Care Services, but suspect a neglectful owner.

'She didn't get this way on her own,' Colonnese said.

Butterball has lost roughly five pounds since she was picked up two weeks ago, weighing 30.9 pounds on Wednesday. Veterinarians and ACS staff have had to restrict her diet, handfeeding Butterball pieces of salmon and tuna as well as Pounce cat treats.

Norwood said the orange tabby has difficulty moving and is more likely to eat if pet.

On Friday, the Animal Defense League will take in Butterball, spokesman Hugo Vital said.

After running medical checks, Butterball will begin the league's 'Phat Camp' program, which began this summer and was designed to help obese cats shed pounds, sometime next week.

The program will involve eating leaner food for dieting cats and daily exercise playing with cat toys. Vital said it's unclear how long it will take for obtain a healthy weight, which doctors will have to determine through their preliminary medical checks and Butterball's activity levels.

'She is definitely going to be the heaviest cat that we have seen,' Vital said.

jfechter@mysa.com Entities 0 Name: Butterball Count: 4 1 Name: Animal Care Services Count: 2 2 Name: Norwood Count: 2 3 Name: Pet Obesity Prevention Count: 2 4 Name: Lisa Norwood Count: 1 5 Name: West Side of Bexar County Count: 1 6 Name: Marvin Count: 1 7 Name: Hugo Vital Count: 1 8 Name: ACS Count: 1 9 Name: Lisa Krantz\/SAN Count: 1 10 Name: Bexar County Animal Control Services Count: 1 11 Name: Colonnese Count: 1 12 Name: San Antonio Animal Care Services Count: 1 13 Name: Bethany Colonnese Count: 1 14 Name: Melvin Count: 1 15 Name: SAN ANTONIO Count: 1 16 Name: Animal Defense League Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1ri3u1S Title: Stop eating cats and dogs say animal rights campaigners in Switzerland Description: Hundreds of thousands of Swiss people eat cat and dog meat say activists, who want the practice to be made illegal. A petition with 16,000 signatures has been handed to the Swiss parliament, calling for the government to stop people eating "domestic animals".