According to the New York Times, Americans are spending millions of dollars on pills. For their pets.

I find this absolutely absurd. I mean, I don’t totally agree with people who are pill-popping machines, but at the same time, that’s their prerogative. However, turning dogs into pill poppers as well is going too far.

Now, it’s fine for a dog to take pills for health reasons, but doggy diet pills don’t fall under that list for me. So your dog is overweight? Take him out for a walk, or do some other form of exercise together – its good for the both of you.

In my eyes, giving dogs diet pills is like putting a baby on a diet pill. It just isn’t done!

It’s not like either can do things for themselves, so it’s up to the parents, of both the dog and baby, to make good judgment on their behalf. And I can’t possibly imagine a dog wanting to lose weight – in my mind the most respected dog in the neighborhood was always the biggest one. And the fact that the dog is overweight in the first place can usually be blamed on the owners for either feeding the poor pup way too much or for just being plain lazy.

But diet pills aren’t the only things that the FDA is approving for canines. There are pills for dogs afflicted with depression, anxiety, and even memory loss. If your dog is depressed, I see that as the owners fault for not giving the loveable critter the time and attention it needs. As for the other issues, I think that if people tried to make their pets less dependent on humans, they would be fine.

Also, it’s odd that these issues are only coming up in house pets. If any dog were depressed, I would think it would be a street dog in a third world country rather than some pampered puppy. If any dogs deserve some prescription pills, I would think it would be the street dogs. – Maahum Chaudhry