Porky pooches leave SPCA speechless (+vid)

Auckland SPCA staff were speechless when they first saw morbidly obese dogs Bert and Ernie.

The two fox terriers were handed-over to the animal haven on June 17 by their owners who could no longer care for them.

On arrival Bert weighted a whopping 32kg and Ernie weighed 20kg. But despite their weight problem the eight year dogs were happy, and had been generally well cared for since they were puppies.

SPCA operations manager Tracy Dunn said the team were speechless when they saw how overweight the dogs were.

She said the SPCA often sees malnourished and underweight dogs and cats, so it was unusual to have two very overweight dogs handed in at once.

Dunn said animal obesity is becoming a major problem in New Zealand.

"The nation's overweight people are in turn overfeeding and supersizing their pets." MORE>>