now for the CBS News Philadelphia pet project with animal Advocate Carol Ericson the pspca and look it's Marvin again thank goodness thank goodness such a I'd be in pretty bad shape if he weren't here you would be here you'd be off this weekend I yeah i' be off for a couple weeks um but anyway you know what we're GNA talk about this morning Jan and everybody overweight dogs now any person dog animal horse rabbit cat they can all get overweight if you feed them too much but there is one breed of
dog and I found this interesting it's not brand new research but it was brand new to me and it may be to you as well there is one breed of dog that is genetically predisposed to get obese and that breed of dog is drum roll please the labador the labrador retriever they can get absolutely huge and that is because 25% of Labrador retrievers have a missing part of a gene it's a mutation and it keep keeps them from feeling full after they eat you can almost call it a fat gene they just feel hungry a
ll the time so with one in four Labradors having this mutation there is a reason that you may see these dogs continuing to have more dogs with that Gene and that is because they are so food motivated that they are fabulous service and assistance dogs because they will work for food so they are very easy you want them to do something you give them a treat and there you go and they are begging because they do not feel full it's not just that you're feeding them too much which is also the problem b
ut these dogs because of that missing part of that Gene they do feel hungry all the time they just never get that full feeling so they don't have to be fed all the time they can be fed as a normal dog and and you can read some of the stuff I was just telling you in some of these great graphics but they literally can't stop eating you don't have to keep feeding them like that though and they've actually analyzed more than 300 dogs they've done 700 dogs and again a quarter of them are the ones wit
h this missing Gene so they're eating all the time so these dogs just keep their weight at a normal weight don't feed them I know it's very very hard not to give into those hungry Labrador eyes but it is not good for them the health problems that result from being overweight is a real problem they've got heart disease arthritis they don't live as long they are just simp L obsessed with food and now you just have to take it upon yourself to give them something else to do so that they can be uh do
ing something that's fun not just eating so that they've got the energy to do something besides stuffing themselves again Labradors are the only breed that have this genetic mutation that makes them feel just empty and hungry all the time the other one that is closely related that may have it is the flatcoated retriever but other dogs of other breeds do not have this Gene if they're fat likely it's because they're not getting enough exercise they're getting too much food that sort of thing so ju
st pay attention for their health but the Labradors 25% of them do have an excuse but don't let it be your excuse to keep them fat so there you go great dogs though they really are all dogs are great frankly and we've got another just a lovely cat here we've got a lovely cat because cats are great as well and this is the lovely bubbles bubbles is a sweet sweet girl she's about 6 years old she's gray and white which is a beautiful combination on a cat she would do well living with another cat she
might super enjoy that she does have diabetes a lot of animals do it's easily managed we'll show you how to do it bubbles would love to be in a home with a family that understands her and maybe you know I think people who have a similar health condition to their pet they sort of get it and they go okay girlfriend you know I'm G to help you out too we have another girl here and this is a big girl named Minnie she's 2 years old she loves people she loves to go to our events meeting other dogs her
size or bigger she's just as nice as she can be probably not a candidate for a house with cats so I wouldn't be adopting Minnie and Bubbles together or have a cat in the house because she probably would like to be with maybe another dog but she also loves snuggling as you can see and she loves treats even though she's not part Labrador and then because they all love treats frankly and then we have peard peard is almost eight years old he's such a nice boy he came back to us after his owner left
housing and when the owner lost their house so did peard so he is back with the Pennsylvania SPCA he is a great dog he's playful he's open to meeting other dogs families and kids you can learn more about these dogs and cat and other dogs and cats on our website pspca.org we have fabulous animals there we're open every day to 6:30 350 East Erie Avenue and you can also look online and take a look at all of our animals we got lots of pictures stories about them Mainline animal rescue associated wi
th the Pennsylvania SPCA as well so we've got lots of places lots of animals and lots of opportunities to find the love of your life
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