Should lazy overweight people be given dogs?

Why do you assume that the overweight are lazy? Of, I know, you’re @Hypocrisy_Central.

Everyone who owns a dog is healthier and lives longer than those who do not own a dog.

That will just lead to dogs being poorly treated and neglected, if you say that they are lazy…

Do you know how incredibly hard it is for an overweight person to actually walk? It is a health issue. Do you want to work when you are sick? I also don’t think its fair to say that all of the ppl in this category care about animals. Making a change starts with the person and it won’t work if they are forced into anything. Force creates resistance not submission.

Wow, I say this with all good humor, but I hope I never meet you @Hypocrisy_Central.

To answer your question, Imo it’s a bad idea. You have to like pets and they cost money. Also they are a long term investment. Any time you move you must consider them, whether the place is pet friendly, is there the requisite room for them etc.

If people want an animal they know where to get them.

Absolutely not. It is unfair to the dog. This is not a new thought; plenty of people get dogs for partly this reason – but every place that adopts out dogs that I have encountered says this is a bad idea because people will generally not, in fact, change their habits. One third of UK dogs and one fifth of US dogs are obese because lazy people, overweight or not, already get dogs regardless of how much they are willing to walk them – a program like the one you suggest would undoubtedly only add to that number.

No. Pets are a responsibility, not a means to an end.

So what do you suggest? People over a certain height/weight ratio be legally obligated to buy a dog so they’ll lose weight? How exactly would you enforce this? Or are you just referring to a particular person you’d like to buy a dog for?

And why? Is it your responsibility to “help” fat people lose weight? Do you want them to lose weight because their weight bothers YOU?

If a person wants a dog, they’ll get one. If not, they won’t. Weight has nothing to do with dog ownership.

Holy ignorant Batman. And double wow on the comment by the OP in the thread.
But to answer the question…no. you can’t force anyone to do anything they don’t want to.

@livelaughlove21 Said it well. Not everyone wants a dog, and not everyone that is overweight is “lazy”.
Last but not least, how much fat people choose to walk is none of your business. lol
Dogs are a gazillion times more trouble than having an eliptical in your bedroom.

If they are lazy they will just train the dog to fetch beers and news papers. I have heard it can help a stroke victim regain some movement after time, but I don’t think it would help with weight loss.

As someone who has lost a load of wait, I can state that at least in my case, walking does not really help to lose weight. Sure walking does burn calories, but even if you walk uphill briskly, and keep it up for a solid hour, you will still only burn 600 to 800 calories.

Weight loss only really works if you can keep the food intake sensible and keep exercise levels high. Even a nice healthy bowl of carrots, broccoli, peas and sweet corn can be turned in to an unhealthy poison, just by adding half a serving of gravy to it, bam, your sodium goes through the roof and calories almost double from it.

Fruit, vegetables, grains, and mosty raw and natural food, combined with exercise, for a sustained period of time, is the only way I have ever seen it work.

Give a lazy person a dog, and at best they will throw a ball for the dog 10 to 15 times a day, before going back to the couch, having burned an insignificant 50 to 100 calories.

LOL wut da…but no, for the reason the answer given by @bookish1. Pets aren’t tools.

People that want a dog will get one if possible and it’s because they want the dog in the first place that motivates then to walk the dog regularly, they care about the dog’s welfare. Forcing someone to have a dog when they would otherwise choose not to is a recipe for disaster in my opinion as a dog that isn’t really wanted is not going to receive the care it needs.

Why? Then the dogs would become lazy and overweight too.

I don’t care what size someone is, a dog is not for a lazy person. Overweight or not. I have known thin people who have messed up their dogs because their full time jobs and kids and extra-interests didn’t fit in an overly active breed they bought, because ‘It looked so pretty.’ The world doesn’t need more neglected pets.

And, being overweight is a much more complicated issue than ‘Get them to walk a bit more.’ Proper healthcare, food preparation skills, nutritional knowledge AND exercise, just off the top of my head. I have obese relatives in the US. Some are helping themselves, others won’t take responsibility for what they shove in their mouths. Incidentally, they all have dogs.