Parents should not be criminalised for having fat children, says Tracey Elliott
Kelly Banham, in her article, “Is the law a fat ass?” (NLJ, 23 February 2007, p 269) suggests that the government should consider “prosecuting parents for child cruelty in allowing their children to become obese for reasons other than a diagnosed medical condition”. She compares the government’s current approach to child obesity with the law’s approach towards animal cruelty and suggests that the criminal law offers more protection to animals than it does to children.
Certainly the case involving the Benton brothers and Rusty, the fat labrador, marks the first conviction of pet owners for the offence of causing unnecessary suffering by allowing their animals to become obese (Protection of Animals Act 1911 (PAA 1911), s 1(1)(a) as amended by the Protection of Animals (Amendment) Act 2000). It remains to be seen if the RSPCA will start routinely prosecuting pet owners for permitting their animals to become obese. If it does, there will be a large number of candidates for prosecution—the RSPCA estimates that nearly one-third of Britain’s
