Thin privilege isn’t being advised to put your much-loved lifelong companion (a beautiful and energetic spaniel named Darby) to sleep.

A bit of back story - Darby is fat. She’s also an older dog but very active, happy and healthy. I sometimes walk her on the beach or toss a ball around her her in my yard. Admittedly I don’t walk her every day but for the slew of judgmental healthists who will no doubt tell me that I’m slowly killing my dog, I work long hours and am a part-time student. I juggle a lot in my everyday life and I’m usually exhausted by the time I get home.

To get back to the story though, I took Darby to the vet for a check-up since she’s recently starting limping on her front left leg. The vet took one look at us and had already made up his mind - we were fat, I was feeding her the wrong things, I didn’t care about my health or hers and she should be put down straight away.

He barely even examined her before telling me that she was in poor condition and suffering from severe joint pain due to her weight. HE DIDN’T EVEN X-RAY HER LEG. When I told him that the limping was recent and she’d always been active, he looked disbelieving and then told me some bullshit about how her weight was only just now starting to affect her joints. She’s been fat almost as long as I’ve had her, so I don’t buy that.

He kept insisting that I consider euthanising her as she was “suffering and unhappy”. This is the dog who greets me with a wagging tail every day when I get home from work, who climbs into bed with me at night and who devours all of her meals happily. I didn’t for one second even consider putting her down of course, but other fat pet owners who have faced this sort of discrimination might feel pressurized into making a snap decision which could lose them their lifelong friend!

In other words, fat animals should be put down simply for being fat. Fat animals deserve to die - and the leap from that to fat humans deserve to die isn’t very long at all. If we can accept this kind of prejudice towards innocent, loving animals then can you imagine how easy it will be for doctors to start saying that fat humans also should be “put down”?

Sorry for the long rant, but I am shaking, furious and actually fearful of taking my dog to another vet in case I receive the same reception.