Our pets weigh too much.

According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention’s latest veterinary survey, 53 percent of adult dogs and 55 percent of adult cats in the United States — that’s 88.4 million pets — are classified as overweight or obese by their veterinarians.

But the bigger problem, reports APOP founder Dr. Ernie Ward, is that pet owners don’t even realize their chubby four-legged friends have a weight problem.

“Twenty two percent of dog owners and fifteen percent of cat owners characterized their pet as ‘normal weight’ when it was actually overweight or obese,” Dr. Ward says. “This is what I refer to as the ‘fat pet gap,’ or the normalization of obesity by pet parents. In simplest terms, we’ve made fat pets the new normal.”

Though a pudgy Pug or an extra-large (and lovable) Labrador may be adorable, the additional pounds he’s carrying can cause medical conditions and physical limitations that will ultimately shorten your time together, Dr. Ward says — and nobody wants that.

“More and more of our pets are entering into the highest danger zone for weight-related disorders.” Dr. Ward warns.

In the Danger Zone

Without a scale, it’s hard to know if your dog is overweight or obese. Veterinary nutritionists, including Dr. Joseph Wakshlag of Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, use a rating system called the body condition score to determine whether a dog is in the “danger zone.”

Chubby Puppy Causes

So what causes our pets to be overweight or obese?